Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron & Fred Squire, "Lost Wisdom"
Phil Elverum's precise insights into the human condition have never sounded better than on these duets with Julie Doiron. Her guitarist, Fred Squire, also helps to make a record that is meticulous, profound, stark, and truly beautiful.
Julie Doiron is Phil Elverum's favorite singer. He acknowledges that it was her work with Eric's Trip which first inspired him to make music and that the chance to work with her during a week-long session is the culmination of a dream. Consequently, he ensures that her singing has ample space in which to shine. The only adornments on Lost Wisdom are two guitars, a vibraphone, and his voice, all of which frame her voice perfectly. Elverum's intimate songs (as The Microphones and as Mount Eerie) live or die by the power of his words. He makes sure they are not buried under other instruments and his voice carries a depth of feeling without straining to convey emotion.
Several of these songs were written during a winter in Norway a few years ago and they were recorded swiftly to a reel-to-reel tape machine. Maybe those are two reasons why, despite lyrics with both weighty and fragile concerns, the music never loses a sense of confident clarity and a natural feeling of lightness. Strangely, the only time this is threatened is on "If We Knew..." when Doiron accompanies herself (with double-tracked vocals) and a little contrast seems to be lost. For some reason Lost Wisdom recalls a time when people tried (unsuccessfully) to convince me that Leonard Cohen's first two albums were depressing. The arrangements and melodies are simple, the playing is quiet and slow, but there is an openess and intensity here which ensure that the music never becomes stodgy or pretentious. This is arguably the best of Elverum's releases to date. For me, "With My Hands Out" is the standout track but these things often have a way of revealing themselves slowly. Most assuredly, there isn't a dull piece here.
I like that the songs are not hidden beneath layers of sound or behide obstuse phrases. Instead, they rest on themes of love, meaning and suffering amid recognition of impermanence and mortality. The opening lines to "O My Heart" suggest that Elverum is wise enough to know that none of this can be forced:
- "What I find will be found easily and only when I'm not looking for it
Without looking for the morning in the sunset"
Somewhat against the grain, Phil Elverum is making worthwhile artifacts even as recorded music is increasingly presented as a virtually invisible construct of the digital age. Lost Wisdom is available in October as a CD or on white vinyl with a massive poster. In November another Mount Eerie release, Dawn, will follow, containing music from the same 2002/2003 winter. Dawn will be out as both a white vinyl LP with a booklet of self portraits, and also as a CD bound in "wood" paper, with 16 photo cards, and a 144 page hardcover book of Elverum's journals of the period.
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