Mount Eerie

Mount Eerie

Phil Elverum performing as Mount Eerie alongside Earth and Ô PAON in Leuven, Belgium in March 2012
Background information
Origin Anacortes, Washington, U.S.
Genres Indie folk, experimental, lo-fi, avant-garde, slowcore, electronic, indie rock
Years active 2003–present
Labels P.W. Elverum & Sun
Members Phil Elverum

Mount Eerie is the musical project of Anacortes, Washington-based songwriter and producer Phil Elverum. Elverum (formerly of The Microphones) is the principal member of the band, but has collaborated with many other musicians on his records and in live performances. Most of Mount Eerie's releases have been issued on Elverum's label P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd., and feature inventive and highly detailed packaging with his own artwork.[1]

History

Following the release of The Microphones' Mount Eerie album, Elverum announced that he would no longer use the Microphones moniker, opting instead to record under the name Mount Eerie, after the area in Anacortes, WA called Mount Erie. In an interview with CITR-FM's Discorder in September 2003, Elverum gave his reasons for this change: "Mount Eerie is a new project. The Microphones was completed, or at least at a good stopping point. I did it because I am ready for new things. I am new."[2] Around this time, Elverum also changed the spelling of his own surname (previously, Elvrum).[3]

Elverum at UCLA in May 2004 (shortly after switching from The Microphones to Mount Eerie).

The first Mount Eerie releases included a limited edition CD-R of new recordings (Seven New Songs of "Mount Eerie"), a 12" EP recorded live to acetate with local musicians during an Australian tour (Mount Eerie Dances with Wolves), and a live triple album released by Burnt Toast Vinyl in late 2004 (Live in Copenhagen). Elverum returned to his hometown of Anacortes after spending several years living in Olympia, WA whilst recording for K Records, and established his own label and imprint, P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd. The first official Mount Eerie studio album in Phil's eyes was "No Flashlight" Songs of the Fulfilled Night, released in August 2005. The original pressing featured an extremely large fold-out sleeve with extensive footnotes and explanations. Following pressings of the album feature more simple packaging with the original liner notes and poster absent.

Elverum has continued to tour and record prolifically in recent years, to considerable critical acclaim.[4] Noteworthy releases have included Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7 (a hardcover coffee-table book of Elverum's photography, packaged with a 10" record), Lost Wisdom (recorded with Julie Doiron and Frederick Squire), and Wind's Poem (a black metal-influenced double-album, recorded with Nicholas Krgovich). In 2012, Elverum released two albums, Clear Moon and Ocean Roar, and was chosen to perform at Jeff Mangum's All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Minehead, England.[5] A new Mount Eerie double-album entitled Sauna was released on February 2, 2015.[6]

In January 2017, the song "Real Death" was released from the forthcoming album A Crow Looked at Me.[7] A second single, "Ravens," was released on February 15.[8] On March 24, A Crow Looked at Me was released and has so far received high critical praise.

Personal life

Elverum married Canadian artist and musician Geneviève Gosselin in 2003 shortly after meeting her. The two dated long-distance briefly before Geneviève moved to Washington to live with Phil. She recorded under the names Woelv and Ô Paon. Besides occasionally singing on each other's records and playing in one another's backing bands live, the couple did not collaborate artistically. The two did not want either of their artistic outputs to interfere with the other's so they kept relatively quiet about their marriage. Occasionally one would mention that he or she was married, but not say who they were married to. In 2015, Geneviève was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer following the birth of the couple's first child. After running out of funds to pay for Geneviève's cancer treatments the two turned to the world and asked for their support through way of a GoFundMe page; an unexpected decision from the usually reclusive couple.[9] On July 10, 2016, Geneviève died in the company of her husband and parents.[10][11]

Discography

Studio albums

EPs and other albums

7" Singles

References

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