Photo by Allyson Foster

Acclaimed songwriter Phil Elverum and his project MOUNT EERIE have always been known for quite profound material but the new album A Crow Looked At Me takes the emotional approach even further. Out via Elverum’s label P.W. Elverum & Sun on March 24, 2017 the new full-length album is a deeply personal reaction to the death of the songwriter’s wife, artist Geneviève Castrée, last year. The songs are about the brutal details of that experience, from the hospitalizations to the grieving, the specific domestic banalities that become existential in the context of such huge and abrupt loss.

Here’s what he got to say about it:

“Why share this much? Why open up like this? Why tell you, stranger, about these personal moments, the devastation and the hanging love? Our little family bubble was so sacred for so long. We carefully held it behind a curtain of privacy when we’d go out and do our art and music selves, too special to share, especially in our hyper-shared imbalanced times. Then we had a baby and this barrier felt even more important. (I still don’t want to tell you our daughter’s name.) In May 2015 they told us Geneviève had a surprise bad cancer, advanced pancreatic, and the ground opened up. ‘What matters now?’ we thought. Then on July 9th 2016 she died at home and I belonged to nobody anymore.

My internal moments felt like public property. The idea that I could have a self or personal preferences or songs eroded down into an absurd old idea leftover from a more self-indulgent time before I was a hospital-driver, a caregiver, a child-raiser, a griever. I am open now, and these songs poured out quickly in the fall, watching the days grey over and watching the neighbors across the alley tear down and rebuild their house. I make these songs and put them out into the world just to multiply my voice saying that I love her. I want it known. ‘

The song Real Death is a first and honest reflection on what happened. The sinister and reduced music video for Ravens continues the theme and both tracks are up now for stream below the album’s artwork and tracklist.

‘A Crow Looked At Me’ – Tracklist

01. Real Death
02. Seaweed
03. Ravens
04. Forest Fire
05. Swims
06. My Chasm
07. When I Take Out The Garbage At Night
08. Emptiness pt. 2
09. Toothbrush/Trash
10. Soria Moria
11. Crow

‘Ravens’

‘Real Death’

—

MOUNT EERIE

LIVE