I have found myself smitten over the last few months with Agnes Obel’s music.
Delicate, epic, haunting, ominous; there is something somehow revelatory about sophomore album ‘Aventine’, as though any moment you might turn a corner and find yourself embarking on some Carrollian quest. Curious, given that the majority of songs are quite introspective and not at all what you would normally associate with adventure.
As Agnes acknowledges, each song essentially takes on a life of its own from listener to listener. “I think songs change…“ she begins, and trails off. Agnes will often take time to properly consider her response. “For me they change in an aesthetic sense, when I find myself playing in front of people. That can change the song for me quite a lot, but it's also very interesting. Sometimes it's like a song goes through a little journey until you end up going back to the old meaning again.
“I have one old song that we started to play quite fast. It was quite a delicate song, about sleeping. It was played very slow and in a way that almost made it sound as though the instruments were being played backwards. But we stopped doing that, because we noticed that people were actually starting to fall asleep,” she laughs.
“It was kind of cool. It's a well-known song so people would sing along, and then you'd see them slowly start to fall sleep. Now we play it in more of a dark way on cello, so its journey has been quite strange.”
There is an inevitable hesitation in asking an artist to divulge the meaning or history of their work. Having played from an early age, the majority of Agnes' songs begin life on the piano and only rarely do lyrics emerge at the same time.
As a result, what the songs might mean to her audience is something she tries to avoid while composing. “I have to admit I don't think so much about who's listening. The way I work is all about forgetting everyone else. It's an illusion that I have, that I'm completely alone and no one is ever going to hear it. When I'm in that state of mind I work really fast, it's like time passes in a different way. It's always when I know I have to deliver, when I know somebody is going to hear it, then I'm very slow and the energy to go on stops working. It's based on suspending everybody I know.
“Music feels more direct to me when it is expressed without thinking. I'm also very subjective and very introspective. Sometimes I have a very specific situation that I want to describe, and when I hear people's response to the songs I'll think, 'okay, well, that didn't come across at all'. It's all so interesting. Music is a very subjective experience. It's really very beautiful in its difference.”
Finding herself compelled to go through the rigmarole of interviews and promotion must then be a particular drain. With her international reputation gaining ground, the clamour for Agnes' time and attention is stronger than ever – little surprise, given just how beautifully composed and affecting her material is.
But like any hypnotism, there is a necessity for mystery. Insistence on insight can bewilder not only the song, but the singer. “I remember after one night where I'd done so many interviews, I suddenly felt as though it was almost a corrupting thing. I felt I was talking about the music in the wrong way. It's something I've had a lot of struggle with, but now that I've had more experience I've started to understand that it's necessary, that it's part of what releasing music is about. I shouldn't take it so close.
“I try and think 'Ahh, nobody cares', and just go back to writing music and forgetting about it. You're always afraid you'll say something that will somehow disturb the perception not just for whoever is listening, but for yourself, so that next time you play the song you won’t hear what it originally was. It's a little bit terrifying, changing your truth [of a song].You have to be careful.”
An ‘Aventine Deluxe’ double CD will be released on 3rd October.
Written by Adam Norris
Agnes Obel Tour Dates
Tue 25th Nov - The Old Museum (Brisbane)Thu 27th Nov - City Recital Hall Angel Place (Sydney)
Fri 28th Nov - Elisabeth Murdoch Hall (Melbourne)
