We still do not know well what to call it, but there is a new way of making music that, finally, has managed to connect the world of classical music with contemporary composition (what is called, sometimes with sneer, 'cultured' music), the Pop and electronics. The Danish Agnes Obel (Gentofte, 1980) represents, together with Francesco Tristano, Kelly Moran or Víkingur Ólafsson, that new generation of composers in which the limits do not work. Hence, his signing for the Deutsche Grammophon label is, at the same time, something logical and surprising.

With the prestigious German house published next Friday 'Myopia', his fourth album . "It was never my ambition to sign with a private label," he explains from his home in Berlin. "But I think it's cool that they are recruiting musicians who are outside the classic catalog. I'm not the only one, and it's a great thing."

You cannot say that his is "the classical music of the future", because his compositions resist labels. That very manly thing of timelessness really works with the different pieces of 'Myopia', including pianos, voices and 'loops'. "As a form of simplification, people are interested in things that come from less musicians," he explains. "If you look, for example, at popular music, for some time now the products that come out are almost a fruit of artificial intelligence , because they are made by huge groups of composers and producers . And this is far from human experience: all these things so perfect. It's the reason why all pop sounds so similar. "

Faced with that, his work is considered almost as a form of resistance. "I want music that is more idiosyncratic, in which you can feel the human being behind . I want to hear who he is and how he sees the world," he says. "That's why my live performances have less to do with the perfect show than with a fragile and lively experience."

'Citizen of glass', his previous work, was an album "on how technology distorts our perception of reality and creates a paranoia, in the sense of how we believe certain things". Also, "about our way of showing ourselves to the world and about how social networks are changing our minds." This album, on the other hand, "goes about how sometimes my perception is perverted by the chemistry of my brain and my experiences of the past, that is, how my memories are part of my present moment because they are 'coloring' every thing I perceive. That's why I use myopia and that's why I wanted to make a myopic record. "

"Sometimes I have the feeling that I cannot trust my own head; for example, if I have a bad day. Because I will perceive everything in a negative way and I will have to discard everything," he explains. "On the other hand, if my day is good, everything will seem fine to me. I know it is a vision of all black or white, but I feel as if my mind was not a neutral canvas for the experience. That is why I wanted to go into this situation of distrust of oneself . "

And that reflection on the way of perceiving is floating in the air. "We are overstimulated. There are too many things happening and I often feel overwhelmed," he laments. "I think it's something that goes beyond age and I can see teenagers burdened with the world because they can't do it. Our psyche is not made to handle so much information ."

Hence, 'Myopia' goes down to the land of the problems present from that timeless cloud. "'Broken sleep' has to do with my fear of falling asleep," he explains of one of the cuts. "Over time, I have learned to overcome insomnia and this fear, so that it is no longer dangerous. I have had to deceive my mind. And, in a way, 'Myopia' goes from that, from the tricks that we we make ourselves. "

For Obel, " music is a mystery. Like conscience : we don't know exactly what it is. Nor do we understand why it makes us feel things so potently ... when it comes only to sounds."

Agnes feels that it is many things and none in particular. "Music is much more than a political commentary, it does not have clear functionality, however much we feel it is something deeper and existential." Which connects with one of the crucial issues in the contemporary debate: femininity. "The place you occupy in the world as a woman is different from that of men, especially if you are an artist," he says. " The archetypal artist, the genius, is always a man . The woman, on the other hand, has to be more patient, that's why she is supposed to work more with time."

But Obel argues that differentiation depends on something else. "For me, every human categorization has to do with the language and culture that surrounds you . I live in Germany and the language is different from that of Denmark. Every time I learn a new language I realize how it is formed by history and culture. From a similar point of view it is where I understand the feminine experience. "

"It seems that when women work with emotion in music it is something that is not seen as deliberate, but comes from within and is out of control," explains Obel. And it is inevitable that the name of another of the great contemporary composers, also of Nordic origin, appears in the conversation. "We talk about Björk and this idea of ​​'force of nature' arises. It happens to me too: I have devoted most of my life to this and there is a question of skill. But it is assumed that the creators use the emotion, while if a man does it is perceived differently, in plan: 'Wow, look how sensitive' " , sentence.

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