Mount Eerie – ‘Night Palace’ album review: a wholly meditative experience
THE SKINNY: In the contemporary era, we’ve become obsessed with tight, compact forms of music, overproduced three-minute songs and 10-track albums that satisfy us emotionally, but done so in enough time that we can engage without losing focus by giving into the pull of text messages, billboards, and sirens outside the window. Night Palace, the latest album by experimental rock master Phil Elverum as Mount Eerie, is a sonic and spiritual rejection of modern musical standards, as he takes us on a long, winding meditation that is well worth your time.
At face value, you might look upon the 26 tracks on Night Palace, and think, ‘You must be joking?’ or ‘This must be some kind of sick prank, I can’t possibly listen to all that’. These reactions are absolutely typical of the fast-paced, instant-gratification spirit of the world we currently inhabit. The scope of art has been reduced to fit in with our time being squeezed more than ever, and our attention being divided by an array of man-made distractions, with most musicians falling in line with these newfangled spiritual norms, often reducing the substance of their work to fit in with listeners that are metamorphosing apropos the digital age.
Those familiar with the life, times and work of Elverum will know full well, that he has never been a conformist. Whether it be due to his upbringing or the fact he’s dedicated his life to music, tapping into the natural mystery of his native Pacific Northwest and fictional renderings by the likes of David Lynch, the American is a distinctive artist, with there stout connective tissue joining his two most famous outlets, The Microphones and Mount Eerie. His music is extracted from deep within, drawing upon frank thoughts, feelings and emotions, from happiness to depression, relaxed spiritual ponderings to moments of pure wrath, and on Night Palace, he provides yet another stellar demonstration of his aptitude and the character underpinning it.
Although he intends to release the record as two LPs, it is one body of work. It is meant to be engaged with, and like meditation itself, when letting go of stresses and extraneous thoughts at the front of the mind, you suddenly find yourself floating in a cerebral immersion tank, where the water flows expressively in a loose time signature, and the colours shimmer exquisitely. After years of intense tumult, including the tragic death of his wife Geneviève Castrée in 2016, the pandemic and a divorce from actor Michelle Williams, Elverum finally found peace. Night Palace is the result of this.
He composed it at a relaxed pace over two years, accepting the ebb and flow of ideas, as he gradually made sense of his past, present and future. Like the sea itself, throwing up surprises on the wind-beaten shore, from precious metals to messages in bottles, those that were meant to be stuck, burying themselves in the sand, the fabric of his psyche, and gradually the album formed, characterised by recording on analogue reel-to-reel equipment. This approach and recording quality give the album a tremendously human feel, a rawness present throughout its traversal of the gamut of emotions, from the serene, naturalistic musique concrete and stream-of-consciousness postulations to the krautrock jams and even the odd blast of unsettling, dissonant noise.
Phil Elverum has long been the master of flowing journeys into the mind’s eye, and with Night Palace, a record of such substance that it takes a few listens to really make sense—mirroring the process of analysing his emotional currents that made it—he’s produced one of his best yet. All it takes is to turn off your surroundings. You could say it’s high art, not just music.
For fans of: Tripping alone in the woods, autumn walks, and cream of tomato soup.
A concluding comment from your local ageing music nerd: “I’ve been listening to Phil Elverum for the best part of three decades, son. Nothing will ever beat The Glow Pt 2; trust me, I was there.”
Release date: November 1st | Producer: Phil Elverum | Label: P.W. Elverum & Sun
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