Philharmonics is the debut studio album by Danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obel. It was released by PIAS Recordings on 4 October 2010 in Denmark, Germany and other European countries. Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel (born 1981) writes, plays, sings, records and produces all her material herself. She is influenced by artists such as Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, John Cale, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Joanna Newsom, Kate Bush and also by French composers Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Erik Satie. Philharmonics has garnered generally positive reviews, with James Skinner from BBC saying that "the compositions... are slow, sombre, sepulchral even, but not without a sense of occasionally singular beauty". In Musicomh, Ben Edgell writes: "Obel sings with a hushed and tender grace that waxes wistful and serene over yearning cello, harp, and piano vignettes. She's a fey siren, with a dusky, near-whispered vocal that speaks to Ane Brun or Eva Cassidy." In the French cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles, Johanna Seban mentions a "disarming purity". All of the songs in Philharmonics - except for "Close Watch" (by John Cale) & "Katie Cruel" (a folk traditional) - are original work. Obel lives in Berlin.
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