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Nov 15, 2019 Web Exclusive By Ian King

The first Lost Wisdom came out of a brief but fortunate convergence of time and place, the god of indie rock schedules handing Mount Eerie‘s Phil Elverum a chance to record some songs with Julie Doiron of his ‘90s heroes, Eric’s Trip. The bards of Anacortes and Moncton, their already gentle voices taking care to not overshadow the other, were a natural pairing. Despite the distance between the two, Lost Wisdom pt. 2 is instinctually faithful in tone musically to the first, though there are stretches of mournful piano, brushed drums and even frustrated punctuations of noise, and the overall production is a touch cleaner.

This decade-delayed reunion does not come under the same happy, haphazard circumstances as Lost Wisdom, but it is reassuring to see Elverum seeking in this check-in some sense and solace in a world with far too little of either. Transmuting heartbreak into beauty is something Doiron has been particularly adept at in her years of songwriting—see “Will You Still Love Me in December?” and other solo records of hers from the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Here at times her role is conversational, as on the expository preface “Belief,” and provides a steadying presence amid “waves of discomfort and uncertainty.” In others, such as “Pink Light” or “When I Walk Out of the Museum,” they whisper-sing in unison to flickering effect.

Lyrically, Lost Wisdom pt. 2 reads as a sequel not to part one but to A Crow Looked at Me and Now Only. The key revelation comes in perhaps the album’s finest moment, the closing “Belief pt. 2”: “I believed in love/And I still do.” This is heartening to hear. Elverum calls this reunion with Doiron “a grab for deeper continuity,” and perhaps a cyclical window has been opened. Not long after the first Lost Wisdom, the music of Mount Eerie grew in drastic, often stunning abstract shapes with Wind’s Poem, Clear Moon, and Ocean Roar. What course might this latest collision set him on next? (www.pwelverumandsun.com)

Author rating: 8/10