Agnes Obel: Aventine

Agnes Obel claims the films of Alfred Hitchcock as an inspiration, and there is indeed a Hitchcockian feel to Aventine’s first song, detectable in the way her chiming piano suggests something untoward stirring in the darkness.

But the Danish singer-songwriter’s second album (which follows her homeland hit, Philharmonics) more closely resembles a stylish European art house film. Stately cello, plucked bass and insistent piano create a lush kind of minimalism, Obel singing alongside languidly in English. It’s an attractive and well-realised experience, though I’d have preferred more of the Hitchcockian darkness.

Agnes Obel

Aventine

(Play It Again Sam)