In March 2017, Phil Elverum, the musician behind Mount Eerie, released A Crow Looked at Me, his heartfelt recollection of the aftermath following his wife Geneviève Castrée’s death. Almost a year to the day, Elverum is back with a new album, Now Only, out now on his label P.W. Elverum & Sun.
Written and recorded between March 14 and October 9, 2017 at Elverum’s home, Now Only takes us a step further into the life of the musician. From the album’s introduction:
Elverum’s life during the period he wrote Now Only was defined by the duality of existing with the praise and attention garnered by A Crow Looked At Me and the difficult reality of maintaining a house with a small child by himself, as well as working to preserve Geneviève’s artistic legacy. Consumed with the day to day of raising his daughter, Elverum felt his musical self was so distant that it seemed fictional. Stepping into the role of Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie held the promise of positive empathy and praise, but also the difficulty of inhabiting the intense grief that produced the music.
And yet step into the role he did, and what results is an album of “songs of remembrance, and songs about the idea of remembrance, about living on the cusp of the past and present and reluctantly witnessing a beloved person’s history take shape.” After all, as Elverum notes, “[t]ime continues,” and so we continue as well.
Listen to two tracks of the new album below!
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