Mount Eerie: NPR Music Field Recordings

"We just played an absurd concert to nobody," Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum says, as he faces a sea of empty red seats at the Folger Shakespeare Library's gorgeous Elizabethan-style theatre in Washington, D.C., just across the way from the Supreme Court. Serendipitously, a group of schoolchildren had toured the oak halls of the library just minutes before, and would take cover in each other's coats from the gray rain outside. We needed only to tape their gleeful yelps to match the recorded version of "Ocean Roar," heard on the album of the same name - just one of two stirring collections Mount Eerie released in 2012.
Both Clear Moon and Ocean Roar are massive and atmospheric records - not at all strange bedfellows in Elverum's sonic vocabulary - but they both communicate his life-affirming, death-obsessed mysticism like never before. "Ocean Roar" is a smart tangle of words; its alternate stories oddly complement and complicate each other, while telling of lost thoughts and wandering souls. On record, the song chimes with guitars and drums that subdivide the dreaminess, but at the theatre, it's just Elverum, a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar and touring band members Allyson Foster and Paul Benson singing soft harmonies at his side. --Lars Gotrich
CREDITS
Producers: Mito Habe-Evans, Lars Gotrich; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videography & Editing: Mito Habe-Evans, Christopher Parks; Special Thanks to the Folger Shakespeare Library; Executive Producers: Anya Grundmann, Keith Jenkins.

[@czarina59]

I’m in love with this version, such beautiful voices

[@deathchips926]

Sandal-core

[@EraserDude11]

sandalgaze

[@weirdelf8604]

Post-Khakis

[@sleepingchildhood5640]

xD

[@gerbilpmc]

Chris M stop

[@theaveragesquire]

What's the deal with mount eerie and flip flops??????

[@Gore171459]

Definitely prefer this version over the album version. So subtle and relaxing.

[@creolecookin8854]

I tear up every time I listen to this.

[@binnghulbain]

It makes me really happy to think that now me and Mount Eerie have performed on the same stage.

[@ckminty603]

@Oliver Dreyer probably was in a play - I'm guessing from the venue

[@gregorymitarsarovich113]

triumphant. real art.

[@luciooquendo6963]

yes it is.

[@kitpalmer1583]

irrational and pretentious phrase

[@hcwright10]

a microphone

[@MapleMilk]

This is "satisfaction with your life"-core

[@HumansFreshlyBorn]

Makes A Crow Looked at Me even more tragic

[@connorclose3084]

@@HumansFreshlyBorn i find myself feeling really sad listening to a lot of phil's older stuff because i feel like i know something awful is about to happen to someone i care about

[@Hyphaen]

@@connorclose3084 I mean to a degree, but he really continues to make beautiful art- microphones in 2020 is one of my favourite albums ever

[@connorclose3084]

@@Hyphaen i totally agree! i guess that it was a silly comment and I definitely do not mean to detract from the music he is putting out now, Microphones in 2020 was so ambitious and he pulled it off so well. i just think of Phil's music as like time capsules into his life at various moments and it makes me sad to know the loss that that version of him will experience? or perhaps i'm projecting my own grief and it is crazy to think that way, but oh well.

[@Hyphaen]

@@connorclose3084 yeah that’s true, there definitely is a sort of loss of innocence thing that frames his discography differently. As much as some people will say ‘it’s all in God’s plan’ or ‘it’s just an opportunity to grow’, death, especially of a significant other, is a tragic and devastating thing- so that makes sense the sort of idealised and almost planned mentality of throwing himself into challenging situations and concepts that he used to do with his albums has sort of been dwarfed by the reality of death. Like as much as the album Mount Eerie is amazing, it definitely does come off as almost childish and naïve in a way now when looking at how death actually exists in his latest works

[@JustaRandomGuy890]

I just love this man so much

[@amirahlee]

I love it! Will check Mount Eerie out!

[@masterofdisguise9564]

I know this is a super, super late comment, but be sure to check out the microphones too; that was Phil’s old moniker he used before he started recording under the Mount Eerie label. Two of the (in my opinion) greatest albums of all time were made under this moniker, those being The Glow Pt. 2 and Mount Eerie.

[@shimmipenguin1764]

@@masterofdisguise9564 the glow pt 2 is probably his best work ever imo

[@girrafecrappinuryard]

@@masterofdisguise9564 the glow pt 2 is one of my all time favorite albums, insanely good

[@JustaRandomGuy890]

@@shimmipenguin1764 Mount Eerie (the Microphones album) is better IMO but to each his own all his music is amazing

[@WGBHMusic]

Very nice vid. Beautiful voices. Pretty lighting. I recognize the sound of the IS from the lens at the top... We shoot with DSLR as well.

[@monaleesha4300]

Aww, that's my brother pollywog! Paul

[@evanhasablog]

I like The Microphones

[@phlangephace]

FOUR YESES PHIL YER GOIN' TO VEGAS!

[@chuheiwei]

so haunting. this is amazing

[@Milktacheable]

Get a field recording of Pre Human Ideas tracks ;)

[@sickloverx]

i legit thought this was filmed in 2020 because of the empty chairs

[@Languageofshapes]

Beautiful!

[@berCarBel]

They are great.

[@AliceYobby]

what a genius

[@chickensit]

my metal head bf forgets to sign out of my account

[@supersimontje]

so nice

[@RorytheRoman]

Thought this was shot during COVID cause of the empty seats, guess they were ahead of the trend lol

[@12Arrancar]

Are there chords available for this version?

[@WGBHMusic]

I do not, sorry. Haven't worked with these guys before.

[@binnghulbain]

whatttanicecomment, thx man.