On Mount Eerie's latest effort, Phil Elverum managest to transform is usual sounds and emotions into a repetitive, drone-y, and sometimes ambient musical experience. Mostly, it's beautiful, but a few moments felt a bit overlong to me. Plus, despite being well over 40 minutes, I didn't come away from this album feeling completely satisfied with the songs and material I was dealt. Still, it's a very solid album. Phil keeps the sounds of Mount Eerie potent, strange, and emotionally affecting while changing things up enough to keep his musical trajectory interesting for longtime fans.
wind's poem
Mount Eerie- "House Shape"
New Tracks1 CommentMount Eerie is not just releasing one, but two albums this year. Between this and the two albums Death Grips is releasing this year, I might explode. Keep fragile things and the faint of heart away from me. The sheer force of this explosion might harm others.
Anyway, the last time we heard from Mount Eerie's frontman, Phil Elverum, on a scale this large, it was when the project released Wind's Poem in 2009. While the album wasn't an accurate picture of Elverum's trademark sound--mostly because Wind's incorporated a surprising amount of black metal elements in its tracks--the album still went on to muster quite a bit of attention inside and outside Mount Eerie's fan base.
The first album Mount Eerie is scheduled to release this year is titled Clear Moon, and "House Shape" is the first track to be released from it. The song hangs in familiar lo-fi territory, keeping the sounds quiet. However, the music still adds up to something unsettling. When everything finally kicks into gear around 1:50, the numerous layers of acoustic guitar, organ, and drums create a swampy drone. It's a blinding fog of subtle dissonance and otherworldly textures. It's the sound of isolation. It's the sound of the natural world reclaiming what's been taken away.
Look for Clear Moon on May 22nd through Elverum's own P.W. Elverum and Sun.