''Aventine'' is the second studio album by

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

singer-songwriter

Agnes Obel Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel (born 28 October 1980) is a Danish singer, songwriter, and musician based in Berlin. Her debut album, '' Philharmonics'' (2010), was released by PIAS Recordings, and was certified gold in June 2011 by the Belgian En ...

, released on 30 September 2013 by

PIAS Recordings PIAS Recordings (formerly Play It Again Sam) is a Belgian record label founded in 1983 by Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot. Play It Again Sam expanded along with other European independent labels in the early 1980s. Play It Again Sam's prominent ea ...

. The album received positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. It was also a commercial success, charting inside the top 40 of the charts in nine countries.

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 Timber Timbre is a Canadian music group, featuring Taylor Kirk. The moniker refers to an early series of recordings made in a timber-framed cabin set in the wooded outskirts of Bobcaygeon, Ontario. History Timber Timbre released two albums indep ...

musician

Mika Posen Mika Posen is a Canadian violinist and music instructor based in Ottawa. She is known for collaborating and performing with acts including Timber Timbre, Agnes Obel, and Forest City Lovers and performs as a solo artist under the name Merganzer. H ...

. 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 St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in Somers Town, Central London. It is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, and is believed by many to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England. The church i ...

for a select group of UK journalists and music industry members. On 17 September, Obel opened for

Ludovico Einaudi Ludovico Maria Enrico Einaudi OMRI (; born 23 November 1955) is an Italian pianist and composer. Trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as ...

at the

iTunes Festival The Apple Music Festival (formerly known as the iTunes Festival) was a concert series held by Apple, Inc. and inaugurated in 2007. Free tickets were given to Apple Music, iTunes and DICE users who lived in the United Kingdom, through localized p ...

and her performance was recorded and released as an EP titled ''iTunes Festival: London 2013''. In October, Obel appeared on

France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-M ...

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 KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programm ...

. In December 2021,

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released a drama series titled

Vigil A vigil, from the Latin ''vigilia'' meaning ''wakefulness'' (Greek: ''pannychis'', or ''agrypnia'' ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word ''vigilia'' has become genera ...

which features "Fuel to Fire" as its theme music"

Reception

''Aventine'' received generally positive reviews from

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 74, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 10 reviews. James Skinner, in

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quiet ...

, 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 ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 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 Ane Brun (; born Ane Brunvoll on 10 March 1976) is a Norwegian songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist of Sami people, Sami origin. Since 2003, she has recorded ten albums, eight of which are studio albums of original material (including a collecti ...

and Seventh Tree-era

Alison Goldfrapp Alison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp (born 13 May 1966) is an English musician and record producer, known as the vocalist of English electronic music duo Goldfrapp. Early life Goldfrapp was born on 13 May 1966, in Enfield, London, the youngest o ...

, Obel is exceedingly good at conveying weariness and disorientation through sound (...). A wonderful autumn album." Alice Parker, from

Contact Music Contactmusic.com is an online magazine of cultural criticism based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, and ...

, 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

Special edition box set

*The box set was released on 30 September 2013. It includes the original album on LP and CD, a bonus CD, a 5-page music sheet for "The Curse", and a photographic artwork print.

Deluxe version

*The deluxe version was released on 6 October 2014. It features three new songs, live versions from Berlin and Paris, and two remixes.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

In 2014 it was awarded a diamond certification from the

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

, which indicated sales of at least 200,000 copies throughout Europe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aventine (album) 2013 albums PIAS Recordings albums Agnes Obel albums