Aventine (album)

Background

The album was announced in June 2013. The album was written, produced, arranged, and mixed by Obel herself at Chalk Wood Studios from 2012 to 2013. In January 2013, the album was given its final mixdown. The album features the instrumentation of Timber Timbre musician Mika Posen.

On Aventine, Agnes Obel commented : "I recorded everything quite closely, miking everything closely in a small room, with voices here, the piano here - everything is close to you. So it's sparse, but by varying the dynamic range of the songs I could create almost soundscapes. I was able to make something feel big with just these few instruments."

Promotion

To promote the album, Obel streamed Aventine online. On 4 September, Obel performed the album live at St Pancras Old Church for a select group of UK journalists and music industry members. On 17 September, Obel opened for Ludovico Einaudi at the iTunes Festival and her performance was recorded and released as an EP titled iTunes Festival: London 2013. In October, Obel appeared on France 24 to discuss the album.

The album was preceded by the single "The Curse" in August 2013 with the music video being directed by Alex Brüel Flagstad. Obel recorded a live version of the song in Berlin for KCRW.

Reception

Aventine received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 10 reviews.

James Skinner, in The Quietus, writes : "Ultimately, Aventine is a triumph of carefully sustained mood; of a sadness that is not so much overbearing as it beautiful, and one that lingers in the silences between listens of this unusual, unusually compelling record."

Caroline Sullivan, from The Guardian, wrote, "The lyrics are impressionistic sketches (…) suggesting she saved the real firepower for the exquisite arrangements : sculpting strings and piano into beautifully melancholy ripples. Like Ane Brun and Seventh Tree-era Alison Goldfrapp, Obel is exceedingly good at conveying weariness and disorientation through sound (…). A wonderful autumn album."

Alice Parker, from Contact Music, agreed: "This album is simply stunning and, if possible, even more captivating than her first album. 'Aventine' is nothing short of mesmerising and it is clear that this 'difficult second album' will live up to expectation and could quite possibly surpass the success of its predecessor."

Track listing

All tracks written by Agnes Obel.

Special edition box set

Deluxe version