Late Night Tales: Agnes Obel (Vinyl)

"To me, sounds have always been more interesting than words," says Agnes Obel. "I love it when the voice becomes an instrument and you almost forget it's a human voice."

Never is this more apt than on this beautifully programmed and bewitching selection of music. Agnes 2010 debut album Philharmonics went platinum in France and Belgium and, unsurprisingly, quintuple platinum in her native Denmark, where she also won five Danish Music Awards (equivalent to the Brits) in 2011. The follow-up Aventine, released in late 2013, was imbued with the same measured calmness as her debut. It went platinum in Belgium and gold in Denmark and France. For the mix you have in your hands it feels almost as if Agnes has scoured the world looking for kindred spirits or kindred songs.

There's a quietude about it all, the antithesis of a rush hour, like a frozen lake on a Sunday morning. This is aided by a veritable cornucopia of new Obel material, including a haunting reading of Danish song Glemmer Du, Inger Christensen's Poem About Death set to original music, and an Agnes original, Bee Dance.