Mount Eerie – “Ocean Roar” by forcefieldpr
VIDEO: “The Place Lives” (dir. by Phil Elverum)
Mount Eerie is having a big 2012. The month of May saw the release of the critically celebrated Clear Moon which sold out the first pressing almost immediately. June through October are full of shows all over the North American continent (more details on that soon). Constant new singles and reissues fill the summer. It’s perfectly timed that the dark counterpart to Clear Moon is being released on September 4th.
Ocean Roar is part two in a pair of new Mount Eerie albums this year. It acts as a counterpoint to the soft synth walls and landscape pondering of Clear Moon, presenting the opposite of that album’s clear glints of awareness: a total wall of blue-grey oceanic fog, a half remembered dream of a trip through dense old growth hills to the gnarly winter ocean, in the middle of the night, decades ago. This album is the audio equivalent of the blanket of thick dark water vapor that covers the Pacific Northwest for most of the year, revealing only brief glimpses of illumination.
For over 13 years Phil Elverum has been releasing beguiling records, first as the Microphones and since 2004 as Mount Eerie. The thread has sometimes been challenging to follow, meandering into weird EPs and live experiments, but there have always been punctuations of cohesive sound and idea, made giant; The Glow pt. 2 (2001), Mount Eerie (2003), Lost Wisdom (2008), Wind’s Poem (2009), and now Clear Moon and Ocean Roar.
After all the world-touring that followed the release of Wind’s Poem, Phil Elverum spent 2 years establishing a new recording studio, “the Unknown”, in an old de-sanctified church in Anacortes, Washington. These 2 new albums, Clear Moon and Ocean Roar, are the first Mount Eerie recordings to be released from the new old space. The giant wooden room is audible.
Ocean Roar is perhaps more experimental than the average album. Calling these things “songs” only loosely applies. These are closer to studies in sound, attempts to alter the way the brain experiences its surroundings after being subjected to endless chords, repeating note flurries, stretched drones. It’s “psychedelic” in same way as seasickness or vertigo. Warmth and distortion, burning driftwood, 9 months of rain.
Tour Dates
08/25 Rochester, WA – Helsing Junction Sleepover
08/26 Astoria, OR – Kala Hipfish Space
08/27 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
09/02 Olympia, WA – Northern
09/03 Missoula, MT – Zoo City
09/05 Minneapolis, MN- CO Exhibitions
09/06 Madison, WI – University of Wisconsin, Music Hall
09/07 Oberlin, OH – Oberlin College
09/08 Albany, NY – Rest Fest, at St. Joseph’s Church
09/09 Buffalo, NY – 9th Ward at Babeville
09/10 Toronto, ON – The Great Hall
09/11 Syracuse, NY – Badlands
09/12 Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa
09/13 Burlington, VT – Studio A at North End Studios
09/15 Brooklyn, NY – 285 Kent
09/16 Manhattan, NY – (le) Poisson Rouge *
09/17 Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
09/18 Washington, DC – Montserrat House
09/19 Durham, NC – Duke University
09/20 Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle
09/21 Louisville, KY – Quill’s Coffee
09/22 Chicago, IL – Co-Prosperity Sphere
09/23 Ames, IA – the Orange Gentleman / Maximum Ames festival
09/24 Omaha, NE – DP Muller Studio
09/25 Lawrence, KS – Lawrence Arts Center
09/26 Norman, OK – Opolis
09/27 Austin, TX – the Parish
09/29 Marfa, TX – TBA
09/30 Tucson, AZ – Topaz #
10/01 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom #
10/02 Los Angeles, CA – Public Fiction #
10/03 Los Angeles, CA – Eagle Rock Center for the Arts #
10/04 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill #
10/05 Oakland, CA – Lobot #
10/08 Chico, CA – Origami Lounge #
10/10 Eugene, OR – Old Whiteaker Firehouse #
10/11 Portland, OR – Backspace #
* = w/ Loren Mazzacane Connors
# = w/ Bouquet
Mount Eerie
Ocean Roar
(P.W. Elverum and Sun)
Street Date: Sept. 4, 2012
Formats: Digital, LP
Theme: fogdream/obliteration
1. Pale Lights
2. Ocean Roar
3. Ancient Times
4. instrumental
5. Waves
6. Engel Der Luft (Popol Vuh)
7. I Walked Home Beholding
8. instrumental
Links: Official Site//Twitter