Background
Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel born 28 October 1980 in Gentofte, Copenhagen. Obel, and her younger brother Holger, grew up in an unconventional environment. Her father had three children from another marriage. He loved to collect strange objects and instruments like the xylophone and the double bass. Her mother, Katja Obel, was a jurist but also a brilliant musician. She used to play Bartók and Chopin on the piano. With a house full of sound and music Agnes Obel learned piano at a very young age. During her childhood, Agnes Obel found inspiration in Jan Johansson's work. Johansson's songs, European folk tunes done in a jazzy style, have influenced the young musician a lot.
Education
She attended high school at Det frie Gymnasium, a free school where she was able to make 10 hours of pottery by week and play a lot of music. But she quickly stopped her studies.
Career
In 1987, Obel joined a small band as a singer and bass guitar player. The group appeared in a festival and recorded some titles.
In 1994, Agnes Obel had a little part in the short film The Boy Who Walked Backwards / Drengen der gik baglæns by Thomas Vinterberg. Her brother, Holger Thaarup, played the main character in the movie. Credited as Agnes Obel, she has only two scenes. She plays a pupil who share her table with the new comer Andreas (Holger Thaarup).
Later, with the help of Danish musician and producer Elton Theander, Obel founded the Copenhagen based band Sohio. But work in a rock band appeared to expose the dangers of an "encumbered" music. During a visit to Berlin, the artist saw the city as an ideal ground for musical creation, far from Copenhagen which had become "a too small city, too choking." Since 2005, Obel has lived in Berlin.
In 2009, Obel put a demo of "Just So" on Myspace. The telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom used "Just So" in an advertisement and, after this great opportunity, Obel encountered less difficulty in finding a label for her first album.
Obel debuted as a solo singer with her first album Philharmonics (2010). She writes, plays, sings, records and produces all her material herself.
This first album has become a critical and commercial success. In March 2011, Obel appeared for the first time in the United States. At the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Agnes Obel has performed all the titles of her album. In October 2011, Agnes Obel has signed with Wintrup Musik for a more important diffusion of Philharmonics. Wintrup is an independent publisher with its own radio & TV promotion department and the worldwide network of a "major".
"Just So" was featured in a Deutsche Telekom commercial in Germany. Three songs from the album were on the soundtrack of the 2009 film Submarino. "Riverside" was featured in the episode "Not Responsible" of Grey's Anatomy and in Episode 12 of the second season of Offspring. "Avenue" was played in the episode "Trust" from Revenge. "Riverside" was played in the episode "Duplicity" from Revenge and in the episodes "What Are You Doing Here, Ho-Bag?" from The CW's Ringer. "Brother Sparrow" is used in Nivea advertising for Nivea Pure & Natural. In April 2011, the Danish group Lulu Rouge have released a remix version of Agnes Obel's Riverside. Keeping the tracks original beauty, Lulu Rouge have added their special electronic tempo on this famous song.
Since 2011, the composer is working on a new album. In an interview, Obel explains, "There will be new melodies that do not take origin on my life in Berlin or when I was a teenager. I will begin recording this summer when I can take a break from my tour."About her new album, she said, "I started to write new pieces, but all were instrumental ones, with the piano alone… In this moment, I feel more inclined to compose instrumental pieces. I already started to write some texts, but for me, it's more difficult to compose melodies." In April 2012, Agnes Obel started recording her new album at Lichte Studio in Berlin. In January 2013, Obel finalizes her new album with a serial of mixing sessions.