Agnes Obel's self-produced second album deepens the Nordic gloom of her debut, trading piano parlour charm for something more architecturally ambitious. Recording in her Berlin home, she layers celeste, strings and her own multitracked voice into compositions that suggest baroque forms filtered through contemporary unease.

The results topped French charts and went platinum across Europe, proof that her meticulous brand of chamber pop could compete commercially while critics noted her unusual commitment to the Dorian mode and pre-Romantic compositional rigour without sacrificing emotional immediacy.