The music Phil Elverum has made over the years hasn't been that far removed from that of, say, Xasthur. The man behind the Microphones and Mount Eerie shares a few predilections with underground black metal: creeped-out lo-fi atmospherics, otherworldly despair, the sense that we're dealing with a fragile loner desperate to keep the rest of the world out. Doesn't hurt that the man's last name sounds like some Lord of the Rings sub-species, either.
Last year, Elverum made the connection a little more concrete with his Black Wooden Ceiling Opening EP, the first release where he explicitly experimented with black metal dynamics. The result, especially the bottomlessly sad opener "Appetite", made for some one of the most hypnotically wracked music of Elverum's career.
On August 18, Elverum will blow that experiment out to album length when P.W. Elverum & Sun releases Mount Eerie's Wind's Poem, which is being touted as his "black metal album." Elverum recorded the album himself in various locations around his hometown of Anacortes, Washington. Nick Krgovich of No Kids dropped by to add some harmonies, but as with most Microphones/Mount Eerie releases, this is basically all Elverum here. That's the cover above, and the tracklist is below.
The album will be available on CD, digital download, or a clear vinyl double LP in "a gatefold jacket with bronze foil stamping and a pull out lyric poster". One of those options sounds slightly cooler than the others.
When Mount Eerie tours this autumn, Elverum will bring a full band with him, including two drummers. A press release promises gongs and walls of amps. This is going to rule.
Wind's Poem:
01 Wind's Dark Poem
02 Through the Trees
03 My Heart Is Not at Peace
04 The Hidden Stone
05 Wind Speaks
06 Summons
07 The Mouth of Sky
08 Between Two Mysteries
09 Ancient Questions
10 (something)
11 Lost Wisdom Pt. 2
12 Stone's Ode
Posted by Tom Breihan on June 12, 2009 at 11:10 a.m.
Tags: Album, Art, Mount Eerie, No Kids, Phil Elverum, The Microphones
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