Agnes Obel Shares “Island of Doom,” New Single/Video off Forthcoming Album Myopia

The Danish singer-songwriter and pianist Agnes Obel has always been a self-sufficient experimentalist, writing, recording, performing and producing her records entirely on her own. Her forthcoming album announced today (Oct. 29) and out Feb. 21, 2020, Myopia, in part takes her own insular process as its theme: “The albums I’ve worked on have all required that I build a bubble of some kind in which everything becomes about the album,” explains Obel. “Paradoxically, for me I need to create my own myopia to make music.” Obel has also released the LP’s lead single, “Island of Doom.”

“Island of Doom” is accompanied by a dreamlike video that calls ultrasound images and grainy closed-circuit TV to mind, created by Obel and collaborator Alex Brüel Flagstad. The track is both stately and unsettling, as its title suggests. “Island of Doom” features Obel’s haunting, luminous piano and mesmerizing vocals alongside plucked strings—all of which, as she notes in a statement, are “pitched down and up.” She goes on to say that the song explores the difficulty of coming to terms with a loved one’s death, one of the many forms of myopia addressed on the album:

In my experience when someone close to you dies it is simply impossible to comprehend that you can’t ever talk to them or reach them somehow ever again. They are in many ways still alive because in your consciousness nothing has changed, they’re still there with everyone else you know.

Of the record as a whole, she explains:

For me Myopia is an album about trust and doubt. Can you trust yourself or not? Can you trust your own judgments? Can you trust that you will do the right thing? Can you trust your instincts and what you are feeling? Or are your feelings skewed?

Watch “Island of Doom” and Obel’s 2016 Paste Studio session below, then find her tour dates and Myopia’s album art and tracklist further down.

Myopia Album Art:

Myopia Tracklist:
01. Camera’s Rolling
02. Broken Sleep
03. Island Of Doom
04. Roscian
05. Myopia
06. Drosera
07. Can’t Be
08. Parliament Of Owls
09. Promise Keeper
10. Won’t You Call Me

Agnes Obel 2020 European Tour Dates:

February
24 – Oslo, Norway @ Sentrum Scene
25 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Göta Lejon
26-27 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ KB Hallen
29 – Cologne, Germany @ Carlswerk Victoria

March
01 – Mannheim, Germany @ Capitol
02 – Hamburg, Germany @ Laeiszhalle
04 – Vienna, Austria @ Arena
05 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Samsung Hall
06 – Lausanne, Switzerland @ Métropole
09 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Hybernia Theatre
11 – Groningen, Netherlands @ Oosterpoort
12 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg
13 – Tilburg, Netherlands @ 013
15 – Warsaw, Poland @ Progresja SOLD OUT
16 – Berlin, Germany @ Admiralspalast
17 – Munich, Germany @ St Matthäus Kirche
19 – Nantes, France @ Cité des Congrès SOLD OUT
20 – Paris, France @ La Seine Musicale
21 – Luxembourg City, Luxembourg @ Den Atelier
23 – Brussels, Belgium @ Cirque Royal
25 – Bayonne, France @ Théâtre Quintaou SOLD OUT
26 – Madrid, Spain @ Teatro Lara SOLD OUT
27 – Barcelona, Spain @ Sala Barts
29 – Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street
31 – Manchester, U.K. @ Bridgewater Hall

April
01 – Edinburgh, Scotland @ Queen’s Hall
02 – Glasgow, Scotland @ Academy
04 – Whitley Bay, U.K. @ Playhouse
05 – Cambridge, U.K. @ Corn Exchange
06 – Birmingham, U.K. @ Symphony Hall
08 – Salisbury, U.K. @ City Hall
09 – London, U.K. @ Eventim Apollo

Agnes Obel 2020 North American Tour Dates (with Dead Can Dance):

April
17 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ The Met Philadelphia
19 – Washington, D.C. @ The Anthem
21 – New York, N.Y. @ Radio City Music Hall
24 – Boston, Mass. @ Boch Center
26 – Toronto, Ont. @ Meridian Hall
29 – Detroit, Mich. @ Masonic Temple

May
01 – Denver, Colo. @ The Mission Ballroom
03 – Seattle, Wash. @ Paramount Theatre SOLD OUT
04 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Orpheum Theatre
07 – San Francisco, Calif. @ The Masonic SOLD OUT
09 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Greek Theatre
11 – San Diego, Calif. @ San Diego Civic Theatre
14 – Mexico City, Mexico @ Auditorio Nacional