“She who has changed me and raised me and taught me so much – and I can feel so much more awaits to be learned” – Agnes Obel
It’s been six years since Agnes Obel’s last album Myopia, a time during which she gave birth to her first child, and this new album, The Meaning of Flowers, and the above dedication, is for her daughter. As with Myopia, it was recorded and produced in Obel’s own Berlin studio which means she can work at her own pace and produce a timeless set of songs that are not constrained by time. Obel says that pregnancy afforded her a “heightened sense of interconnection with all living things” and “the significance of birth, growth and metamorphosis in the natural world”. She has drawn on these elements alongside influences from the poetry of Enheduanna (particularly her hymns to Inanna – goddess of childbirth, love, sex, song and war), and the ideas of writer/philosophers Hannah Arendt (who coined the phrase “the banality of evil“) and Emanuele Coccia (The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture).
Agnes Obel has a preternatural ability to mix the analogue with the digital as well as bridge classical and contemporary styles. She has created a magical world where each song represents versions of herself and the album’s concepts with myriad different moods to experience. Her natural voice is, as always, beguiling but she will often treat it by subtly adding effects, such as the judder on ‘Laymelli’ that pulses along with the low synth-bass notes, or by changing the pitch to create low resonance or a higher, more ethereal quality. On ‘Blood so Red’ she utilises the rhythm of the piano and ticking percussion as a counterpoint to the hypnotic legato of her voice and the strings.
It is easy to get utterly lost in Obel’s music. I imagine it being similar to free divers who descend into the twilight depths of the sea on one held breath and lose all thoughts of the real world behind. From the soft notes of the opening title track you are slowly drawn into Obel’s orbit, a feeling you won’t want to resist and her musical translation of metamorphosis, lifecycles, and time and space often bring an overall sense of stillness and wonderment. Arrangements are always Goldilocks perfect; never too much going on and never anything lacking. Whereas ‘Beyond the Sun’ is made up of the simplicity of voice and piano it is followed by ‘Tangerine’ fizzes with saxophone and flute over a bubbling stream of piano notes.
So many external factors can affect a musician’s work: trauma, heartbreak, or love, but the beauty of motherhood and the way it changes a person’s physiology and neuroplasticity led to Agnes Obel exploring new ways to write music. On The Meaning of Flowers Obel has translated new life, and the interconnectivity of all things, on both a micro and macro level. It is a most beautiful expression of the metaphysical realm, and while you’re travelling in Agnes Obel’s world everything seems a little brighter and more optimistic.
Agnes Obel: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
NB: If you are new to the music of Agnes Obel but her voice sounds familiar then it might be because her track ‘Fuel to the Fire’ (from the album Aventine) is used as the theme to the BBC television series Vigil.
Review by Paul F Cook
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