Agnes Obel returns with The Meaning of Flowers, her first studio album since Myopia (2020). Written, recorded, arranged and produced by the Danish-born, Berlin-based composer and singer-songwriter, the 12-track album explores birth, growth, motherhood and the connections between human life and the natural world.
The album grew out of Obel’s experience of becoming a mother, alongside her reading and research into ideas of new beginnings, metamorphosis and interconnectedness. Its influences range from the poetry of Enheduanna, the world’s first named author, to the philosophy of Hannah Arendt and Emanuele Coccia, as well as Danish pop and 1970s film scores.
The Meaning of Flowers is released by Deutsche Grammophon on 18 September 2026. The first track, Laymelli, is available to stream and download now.
Written and produced in Obel’s Berlin studio, the album combines her vocals, piano, keyboards, synthesizers and samples with contributions from guest musicians on violin, viola, cello, bass, lap steel, harmonium, flute, saxophone, percussion and backing vocals.
Obel describes the title track as an attempt to get close to the feeling of a new beginning. Across the album, that idea takes different forms, from the experience of motherhood to the cycles of nature and the possibility of seeing life as something interconnected.
On Blood so Red, Obel draws on Enheduanna’s hymns to Inanna, while Gemini and Laymelli also explore ideas of transformation and the life cycle. Elsewhere, Don’t Look Down takes inspiration from 1970s film scores, while Never Been looks towards Danish pop of the 1980s.
Tangerine, the album’s only instrumental track, brings together saxophone, celesta and piano. It is one of several moments where Obel uses unusual combinations of instruments and textures to expand the album’s sound beyond a conventional singer-songwriter format.
The Meaning of Flowers is dedicated to Obel’s daughter, who became a central part of the album’s ideas about new life, change and transformation.
Listen to Laymelli and pre-order The Meaning of Flowers now.
