Aventine

Obel’s 2010 award-winning debut, <i>Philharmonics</i>, was a delicate, simply constructed set of songs that evinced the singer/songwriter’s classical training and tasteful restraint. The Danish songwriter’s second full-length album, <i>Aventine</i>, has an even more captivating and hushed intimacy. Much of <i>Aventine</i> floats along with a hazy sense of melancholy, accompanied by Obel’s solo piano or a small chamber ensemble. Songs like “Fuel to Fire” and “The Curse” use the sparest of elements for haunting results. The evocative highlights are many, but “Smoke & Mirrors” is utterly disarming.