Calliope Music Review of the Week
Mount Eerie - Night Palace
Drown in the Wind of Night and See That All is a Gift
As explained by Mount Eerie (Phil Elverum) on the song 'Writing Poems,' it is an impossible task to truly recreate the feelings and experiences of a particular moment after the fact. There is no substitute for the realness and potency of the present.
Night Palace is an impressive attempt at this task, fully immersed in the most authentic reaches of Elverum's experiences. Clad with the Singer-songwriter's signature lo-fi Indie Folk sound, the album imposes both the beauty and brutality of nature, being a liaison between the listener and Elverum's deep connection with the Earth and its many vibrations.
A foreboding aura is built through buzzy acoustics and dark organ, acting as the roots to grand trees of electric guitar drones and strident synthesizers. Bushes of slapping drums and worm-like basslines add to the forest of harsh noise felt in bursts throughout the record. These storms are contrasted by the calm of grand piano echoes, Elverum's melodic whispers, the immortal ambiance of nature recordings, and the chilling blows of sampled wind. Violent gales and soft zephyrs alike come together in soothing harmony, consoling the ear with the gentle power of nature.
A satisfying bond between aesthetic and subject occurs as Elverum details thick sentiments of impermanence, disassociation, and ownership through the lens of Earth's offerings. Tender poetry describes a liminal space between society's reality and nature's reality, allowing Elverum to move on from loss, speak with and listen to animals and wind, and push to remove the human concept of "owning' Earth. Delicate and complex as these subjects are, they are navigated so organically that the album never ceases to flow, despite its extensive runtime.
While the 80-minute record flows seamlessly in aesthetic and topic, the number of shifts between short, one-minute tracks, and longer, five-to-ten-minute tracks disrupt its cadence. A few of these songs, like, 'Swallowed Alive,' 'Wind & Fog,' 'Blurred World,' and 'Myths Come True Pt. 2' come off as underdeveloped in their disconnected progressions. Even the 12-minute track, 'Demolition' loses its cadence as it begins to wander in its atmospheric and spoken word minimalism.
Although these strains stray from the album's most engaging moments, they cannot hinder the breathtaking boundlessness of the record's overall philosophy. Mount Eerie embodies the chaos of a mind between worlds, allowing grating manipulations of instruments to blend into the grace and mystery of Mother Nature, all in the blurry eyes of a gorgeously crafted lo-fi intimacy.
Best Tracks: Huge Fire -- Broom of Wind -- I Walk -- Non-Metaphorical Decolonization -- Co-Owner of Trees
8.5/10
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