AGNES Obel is on tour in a suitably frozen Britain this week, although alas the glacial Danish singer-songwriter has ventured no closer to York on her sleigh than Manchester.

Citizen Of Glass, as minimalist as it is magnificent, is the sound of winter settling in for what promises to be its chilliest season in years, with Obel cast in the role of the Snow Queen.

Recorded, produced and mixed by Obel in Berlin, the perfect place for cutting-edge musical enterprise, given how Bowie and Lou Reed sought new creative experiences in the German city, her third album finds her pushing herself to "do new things", while exploring the theme of glass and its see-through qualities.

You have to be "willing to open up, use yourself as material", suggests Obel and her pretty yet experimental songs do indeed open up both emotionally and in the way they gradually reveal their musical hand on such stand-outs as Golden Green and Familiar, where the sound of words is as important as their meaning.