Citizen of Glass
Agnes Obel
Pias Recordings, 2016
Danish musician Agnes Obel constructs music with the same delicate strength spiders use silk to create webs. 
Impossibly strong and fragile at once. The thin lines of melody reflect light easily and convey genuine emotion. Under the right conditions, these creations could collapse or last a hundred years.
Airy, flitting melodies rise like wisps of smoke, hard to ignore and drifting away, out of reach. What might initially appear to be a flimsy melody arcs and bends the way saplings in a storm do, twisting, before finding their way back. Citizen of Glass works as a longer piece, to be listened to from start to finish. A starkly intimate window to an artist who sounds and feels achingly vulnerable here.
There is a neo-classical mood running deep here. Obel manages to deftly sculpt sound to her bidding, creating beatifically tender soundscapes which float effortlessly.