Living most of his life in Anacortes, much of the content of Elverum's music is conceptually laden with a distinct sense of place and atmosphere from the Pacific Northwest.
His damp, spacious production, and reflective, lilting melodies, call to mind towering pines shrouded in mist and fog.
''My music project Mount Eerie is named after the actual mountain, Mt Erie, that lies just south of [Anacortes],'' Elverum says.
''I try to make music that feels associated with this particular place in some way, whether it's literally described in words or just an ambiguous feeling.''
Elverum's home environment played an important role in the recording of his two latest studio albums released last year, Clear Moon and Ocean Roar.
Recorded concurrently in a newly constructed studio space, each album is a distinct yet intertwined piece of the same world, he says.
''In general, Clear Moon is clear sounding,'' he told undertheradar.co.nz.
''You can hear the words and there are lots of words and it's about describing everyday moments. Ocean Roar is not clear, it's dense and instrumental and distorted and abstract. It's an abstract world to enter.
''Those distinctions aren't 100% because there are moments of distortion on Clear Moon and there are moments of clear thinking on Ocean Roar so that's how they're intertwined.''
As well as isolation, and the empty echo of lonely natural vistas, Elverum's music is also heavily tied to naturalism. Clear Moon in particular sounds of another time, an ancient time, when the world moved slowly and the digital hadn't even been dreamt of.
''For everyone it's a constant battle to stay focused and simplify our minds,'' he told undertheradar.co.nz, ''and I guess that seems like a good way to live to me: just calm your mind down and have as few distractions as possible and focus on whatever it is you're doing at that point in time.
''I do know that I make records that work best if you're paying close attention to them rather than music that you can put on in the background. It's more rewarding to deliberately listen to this music, which is a lot to ask of people but maybe that's where the feeling comes from.''
Australia's Leighton Craig is joined by Pumice (Auckland) and Black Yoghurt (Dunedin)
at new venue Queens, 1 Queens Gardens. Since 1995, Brisbane resident Craig (ex Lost Domain) has etched out a varied musical existence, recording and performing a unique body of solo and collaborative work. His practice ranges from solo keyboard studies, song-based explorations, site-specific environmental recordings, sound installations and group improvisation.
Using lo-tech gear and his voice to create delicate and incandescent forms, Leighton Craig's brittle folk-electronics conjure a subdued yet powerfully evocative aura.
Craig is joined by outsider low-fi/noise/folk musician Pumice and Dunedin electronic musician Black Yoghurt. Doors open at 8pm.
Catch him
Mount Eerie plays at Chick's Hotel on Thursday with support from Strange Harvest and Trick Mammoth, from 9pm.
He then plays at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery on Friday supported by Alastair Galbraith, at 7.30pm. Pre-sales from Portil (Harvest Court Mall) and Too Tone Records (Northeast Valley) and www.undertheradar.co.nz.
