Philharmonics
Those who fell in love with Agnes Obel’s wistful voice and the somber songs that graced her 2010 *Riverside* EP are sure to succumb to the charms of her debut album *Philharmonics*. Born in Copenhagen (but residing in Berlin), Obel sings beautifully melancholic ballads with breathy and bewitching inflections. “Falling, Catching” is a minute-and-a-half instrumental piano piece that perfectly introduces the stark beauty of “Riverside” before “Brother Sparrow” adds on lightly strummed acoustic guitars and a second vocal track making her singing sound more dusky and mysterious. She turns John Cale’s “Close Watch” into a spectral lullaby akin to Marissa Nadler’s best moments. Standout song “Just So” was featured in a German Deutsche Telekom commercial and in the soundtrack to Thomas Vinterberg’s film *Submarino*. It plays like the album’s centerpiece with a spare architecture of piano, gently plucked strings, and feathery vocal harmonies allowing plenty of room for a big beautiful melody to blossom and wilt before your very ears with a fantastical beauty — like waking up in a fresh snow bank to the sound of sirens singing \"Edelweiss\".