What if the sound of wind through trees could be translated into human words? What is it saying?
For WIND’S POEM by Mount Eerie, Phil Elverum spent almost two years out behind the house, at the edge of the woods, listening into the night and finding these words. Songs of impermanence, dark change, destruction, temporary blossoming, mortality, and an immense river of air tearing through the world make up the 3rd official album by Mount Eerie.
STREAM: Mount Eerie – Wind’s Poem –
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111502149
A hundred kinds of distortion, oceans of synth, and clouds of bass are the elements these twelve songs are built from, with moments of clarity occasionally revealing soft harmonies (featuring Nick Krgovich from Vancouver’s NO KIDS) reverently attempting to describe a dark mystery. The album holds a large debt to the music and world of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, as well as to some of the more innovative artists on the edges of ambient, colossal Black Metal. Like these influences, WIND’S POEM also drifts back and forth between a “dream world”, where the wind screams about fleeting existence, and reality, standing on the street, wide awake, looking at the hills outside town, remembering.
The album is well built, resting on the stone-solid production of Mount Eerie’s only actual member, Phil Elverum, recorded at various locations around his hometown of Anacortes, Washington. In large walls of warm noise you can hear the wind, or is it flames?, or cymbals?, voice-like through the fog. And then all at once the clouds part and a song hangs in the air, soft and clear.
WIND’S POEM comes on double clear vinyl in an old-style gatefold jacket with bronze foil stamping and a pull out lyric poster, or on CD or digital. Mount Eerie will be touring in a full band version all over the US in support of this album in the fall of 2009, featuring (among other things) 2 drummers, some gongs, and a wall of amps. Songs of impermanence sung huge, distorted, and warm.
MOUNT EERIE
08/06 – Halifax, NS – North Street Church $
08/08 – St. John’s, NL – George Street United Church $
08/13-15 – Asheville, NC – Transfigurations Fest
09/18 – Portland, OR – Backspace # % @
09/19 – Oakland, CA – 21 Grand % # @
09/20 – Los Angeles, CA – Eagle Rock Center for the Arts # % @
09/24 – Eugene, OR – Agate Hall at University of Oregon # % @
09/25 – Olympia, WA – Northern # % @
10/05 – Oak Harbor, WA – Oak Harbor Library (3 PM)
10/13 – Anacortes, WA – Department of Safety !
10/14 – Seattle, WA – Vera Project ! #
10/15 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom ! #
10/17 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall ! #
10/19 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court #
10/20 – Denver, CO – Rhinoceropolis #
10/22 – Lexington, KY – Red Mile Round Barn @ #
10/24 – Philadelphia, PA – Haverford College @ #
10/25 – Philadelphia, PA – 1st Unitarian Church @ #
10/31 – Brooklyn, NY – Market Hotel (Halloween Show) @ #
11/01 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge / Wordless Music @ #
11/03 – Pittsburgh, PA – Garfield Art Works @ #
11/04 – Cincinnati, OH – Art Damage Lodge @ #
11/06 – Bloomington, IN – Banneker Community Center @ #
11/09 – Iowa City, IA – Public Space @ #
$ = w/ Julie Doiron
# = w/ NO KIDS
% = w/ Karl Blau
@ = w/ Tara Jane O’Neil
! = w/ WHY?
Wind’s Poem
Mount Eerie
Wind’s Poem
(P.W. Elverum and Sun)
formats: 2xLP, CD, digital
themes: erosion/mortality
Street Date: Aug 18, 2009
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
MOUNT EERIE LINKS:
Artist page – http://www.pwelverumandsun.com