He's back posting album covers again. You can blame (but I will choose to thank) A: my current physical breakdown B: the resulting (enforced) clear calendar of contiguous uncluttered hours (ah Whitespace) and C: the welcome but unexpected (how uncommon is sense in busy human brains?) ......space to think. I've recently become pretty exhausted with the constant, unrelenting timeslicing of the perfect spongecake that is my day. Every day. You know you're living when you forget to eat. Hasn't happened to me yet but I'm working on it.
Back to the music. One dark night, wholly unable to sleep - due in equal part to the sins of overrest and overindulgence in damn fine coffee - I stuck on my headphones and went looking for an album in my digital raincloud which I could get lost in, start to finish, to distract my brain into sleep. This one uncloaked itself and for the next hour or so, blew alternately warm or stormy pacific mountain air in through my earholes. It's self recorded with most of the noises (except those very obviously emanating from a female voicebox) generated by Mr. Elverum hisveryself. For such a DIY record, the production is accomplished but beguilingly rough around the edges. Given comments elsewhere around intentions to recreate the sounds of nature in the studio, it's also spectacularly effective. There are some magical words and musics squeezed in between the senses too.
Some lazy copy and paste commentary curation from much more articulate folk around the Internet (specifically user reviews) which nail what's special about The Micrphone's music - or at least comments which resonate with my own experience of the music:
"....a sonic translation of how the ocean looks, how the sunlight feels on your skin, how the wind bends branches around. It demands a lot of the listener but it's a rewarding journey..... It is no exaggeration to say that time works differently when you listen to this record. It's like when you go out to the beach to watch a sunset, or climb up a tree to think about things. Every moment is so radically full of beauty that time doesn't seem to pass.... Subtle variations in panning, sounds that come up over you like waves. Incredible attention to detail. ...it's about experiencing reality more completely. Be brave. Dive right in"
"The centerpiece is an eleven-minute song entitled "The Glow," which is one of the best experimental pieces I've heard in a long time. It goes from a mild voice with acoustic guitar ("The glow came down from the hills"), continues into a nearly-dissonant chorus with organ, back to the guitar-voice combo, then the creepily angelic voice of Mirah ("Hey, wake up, it's me, the glow"). Then, with a sudden crash, it becomes a rock song ("I started to glow"), complete with "woo-woo" backup singing, before eventually fading out into shadows and whispers. But it's even more than that, what with all the layering of instruments and voices. "The Glow" is definitely the highlight of an already great album"
Anyways - this came at a perfect time."The centerpiece is an eleven-minute song entitled "The Glow," which is one of the best experimental pieces I've heard in a long time. It goes from a mild voice with acoustic guitar ("The glow came down from the hills"), continues into a nearly-dissonant chorus with organ, back to the guitar-voice combo, then the creepily angelic voice of Mirah ("Hey, wake up, it's me, the glow"). Then, with a sudden crash, it becomes a rock song ("I started to glow"), complete with "woo-woo" backup singing, before eventually fading out into shadows and whispers. But it's even more than that, what with all the layering of instruments and voices. "The Glow" is definitely the highlight of an already great album"
Go, listen, ideally on a mountain top overlooking the ocean, in a storm, through headphones. Expensive noise cancelling ones so you can filter out the snoring nature sounds as you become one with the nature sounds on the record. I would like to eventually live in Anacortes WA or, failing that, somewhere a lot closer to foggy peaks and salty air.
I've just finished re-reading Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and while it's not remotely what the book is known for, I love the descriptions of the natural environments which the characters pass through or are drawn back to. This one description reminded me of Bariloche : "I see there is a porch out in back... it's at a level with the tops of the trees surrounding the hotel which seem to respond to this morning air the same way I do. The branches and leaves move with each light breeze as if it were expected, were what had been waited for all this time..... We are in love with everything this morning and talk about good things all the way down a sunlit street..."
Puts me in the mind for a great adventure with those girleens. It's gas, I've also added a long motorcycle (R1200GS) journey to my list after reading ZMM. I have *such* a memoryfoamsoul. Full of chemicals and highly flammable? No, more highly impressionable. Speaking of, we're in the market for a performance mattress (an upgrade to go with my performance pyjamas). Any tips, drop us a line.
Related Clickables :
- Introductory Essay
- Phil Elverum's Twitter Feed - even though his avatar photo looks like that of an accomplished haiku poet. it's not actually him. Even though he is an accomplished haiku poet - see his twitter feed :)
- pwelverumandsun
- Song Exploder Geek out on the How
- Fancy People Adventures - hilarious side project
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