Singled out as one of Bob Boilen’s favorite artists at SXSW, and the receiver of high praise from director and unabashed fan David Lynch (“She has the most beautiful voice, unique and extraordinary”), Agnes Obel returns with shattering beauty on Citizen of Glass, out October 21, 2016 (Play It Again Sam / [PIAS]).
The new music is absolutely enchanting, with a touch of a bleak but beautiful sadness and an anticipation of something wonderful just around the next corner. But make no mistake…as she weaves her ethereal vocals through dense layers of strings and keys, Agnes Obel also shows herself to be fiercely feminine and deeply powerful.
Citizen Of Glass was written, recorded, produced and mixed by Obel at Aventine-Neukolln and BrandNewMusic-Studios in Berlin. The album will be available as a digital download, CD with lyric booklet, and on 180g black vinyl LP + download code in a gatefold sleeve. Check out the enigmatic album trailer here .
“The title comes from the German concept of the gläserner berger, the human or glass citizen,” Obel explained. “It’s actually a legal term about the level of privacy the individual has in a state, and in health it’s become a term about how much we know about a person’s body or biology or history – if they’re completely made of glass we know everything. There’s an increasing sense in this world that you have to make yourself a bit of glass. To be willing to open up, use yourself as material, and not just if you’re an artist or a musician.
“I worked with the title from the very beginning to push myself to do new things,” she continues. “I wanted to push myself conceptually from the starting point, to push the glass theme throughout the songs in different ways – in the lyrics, in the instruments – to do things in a very new way. As an album, it feels bigger to me, a lot bigger.”
Listen to the haunting song “Familiar” here:
Established as a major star across Europe, Obel has sold more than a million copies of her first two albums, Philharmonics (2010) and Aventine (2013), and has had over 250 million track streams worldwide. Here in North America, her songs have been featured on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Pretty Little Liars” (ABC), and “The Leftovers” and “Parenthood” (NBC). Obel has also received singularly stunning critical praise here in the U.S.:
Agnes Obel will tour North America in 2017. Find out more at agnesobel.com
