Phil Elverum announces new album of “100% background noise” that “contains no music”

Phil Elverum has announced his second release as The Microphones in as many years, and, like 2020’s Microphones In 2020, an epic, 45-minute poem unlike anything else in Elverum’s dense and beautiful catalog, 2021’s Foghorn Tape breaks significant new ground… in that it’s not really ‘music’.

Described by Elverum, who also records as Mount Eerie, as a record of “100% background noise” that “contains no music”, Foghorn Tape, as Pitchfork notes, is a vinyl-only release that’s “literally just the noisy fuzzed out tape loop of a ‘fog horn’ (actually a distant pitch-bent bass) that plays through-out the background of ‘the Glow pt. 2’ and other Microphones musics.” Limited to 999 pressings on clear vinyl, available on Elverum’s P.W. Elverum & Sun webstore, Foghorn Tape has no digital or streaming option, and is released this Friday.

The FADER named "Microphones in 2020" one of the year's top 100 tracks; view the full list here. Prior to "Microphones in 2020", Elverum's most recent release was a collaborative album with Julie Doiron titled Lost Wisdom Pt. 2, a sequel to the duo's first collaborative record.

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New release now available: "Foghorn Tape" by the Microphones
clear vinyl LP of background noise, no songs, no music
limited edition, no digital optionhttps://t.co/fiUf7S0lIx pic.twitter.com/saoLU3ycsU

— Phil Elverum (@PWElverum) March 2, 2021