KRVX

To record his first of two albums to be released this year as Mount

Eerie, former leader of The Microphones Phil Elverum retreated to a

former catholic church turned studio In his tiny Pacific Northwest

hometown of Anacortes, Washington. Clear Moon, the first album

that has come as a result of that extended session has the unmistakable

quality of an album that was recorded as a personal statement.

Elverum’s distinctive half whisper of a singing voice along with the

woozy and strange usage of guitars, synths, horns, strings, and clipped

drums has an odd way of transporting you into Elverum’s backyard and

the supposedly gloomy skies of small town Washington. Elverum details

the smaller points in life: buying groceries, trying to get the car to start,

but his poetic voice and barely there vocals make these depictions of

everyday tasks seem more like quiet prayers and somber reminders of

man’s mortality. The musical style Elverum has developed is instantly

recognizable as the tracks are beautiful in ways that don’t seem obvious,

as in the plodding hum of “Through the Trees pt. 2” and the hushed intimacy

of “The Place I Live”. Mount Eerie stretches out as well with the ominous

horns of “Lone Bell”, the gnarled drone of “House Shape”, and the booming

crunch of “Over Dark Water”. The album’s centerpiece is its sprawling title

track as a veritable ocean of synth drones washes over the listener while

drums and cymbals crash like waves against the Washington coast line.

Clear Moon is an intimate, honest statement from Phil Elverum’s Mount Eerie

that communicates heavy universal themes in a style that feels softly

understated, something Elverum has certainly mastered at this point.