Phil Elvrum

Phil Elverum (born Philip Whitman Elvrum May 26, 1978) is an Anacortes, Washington-based songwriter, producer and visual artist, best known for his musical projects The Microphones and Mount Eerie. In the mid-2000s, Elvrum began to spell his surname "Elverum", after the Norwegian town of the same name.

Career

Music

Elverum is best known for having recorded and performed prolifically under the band names The Microphones (1996–2003) and Mount Eerie (2003–present). The Believer described his work as "delicately spare or layered and noisy, often in the same song. Lyrically, he focuses on memory, first-person storytelling, myth, naturalism, the everyday as sacred, and sense of place (in and out of Washington State)". Elverum uses mostly analog recording equipment and often works in his own studio spaces, where he has the time and freedom to experiment with sounds. He currently records at a disused church in Anacortes, WA called "The Unknown".

In 2004, Elverum established the label P. W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd., through which he has released records by Mount Eerie and The Microphones, as well as The Spectacle, Thanksgiving, Woelv, Nicholas Krgovich, Key Losers and Wyrd Visions. Prior to this, he was closely linked to K Records and the Olympia, Washington music scene, where he produced recordings by Mirah, Little Wings, Beat Happening, The Blow, and others.

Elverum

 Elverum  is a town and municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Elverum. The municipality of Elverum was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt).

Elverum lies at an important crossroads, with Hamar to the west, Kongsvinger to the south, and Trysil on the Swedish border to the northeast. It is bordered on the north by Åmot municipality, in the northeast by Trysil municipality, in the southeast by Våler, and in the west by Løten.

General information

The name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Elverum farm (Old Norse: Alfarheimr), since the first church was built here. The first element is the genitive case of elfr which means "river" (here the Glomma river) and the last element is heimr which means "home/homestead" or "farm".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 9 December 1988. The arms show a gold-colored owl on a red field. This was chosen as a symbol for wisdom since there are many schools in the municipality. The owl also seems somewhat aggressive, to represent the fighting spirit of Norwegians. In 1940, when Norway was under attack from the German forces, King Haakon VII received the power from the parliament to govern the country, in its best interests while he was in Elverum.