Mount Eerie With Julie Doiron & Fred Squire

In many ways, Lost Wisdom is the sound of Phil Elverum fulfilling a teenage fantasy. Put on any of his old Microphones albums and the influence of his self-professed heroes, Eric’s Trip, is loud and clear. Now, Elverum has laid down ten tracks with one of the members of said famed indie pioneers: sad-voiced Canadian songstress Julie Doiron. With her guitar-sporting partner Fred Squire in tow, the three pen a handful of new originals, as well as revisit several older Elverum compositions, such as "Who?” and "Voice in the Headphones.” The folk-leaning album comes minimally arranged, relying almost exclusively on each players’ subtle guitar work, finding Elverum and Doiron splitting the vocal duties. Most often, their voices tangle — harmonizing, calling and responding — with neither dominating the other, creating their fare share of beautiful moments. Lost Wisdom is by no means a happy listen but it should easily please fans of both Elverum and Doiron’s recent work. In fact, the only complaint is that they didn’t record another ten tracks.