He's a force for nature, that Phil Elverum of Anacortes, Washington. Five albums into recording as Mount Eerie, Elverum manages to blend rock, orchestral post-rock and electro folk elements into an extraordinary tapestry like no other--mostly in contemplation of the great outdoors, and his place on the planet. 

The "trees on the ridge" are the image that leads off Mount Eerie's fifth album Clear Moon, in the delicate, acoustic opener "Through the Trees Pt. 2", and they're an image that return late in the record, on the dreamy, meditative "Yawning Sky". In between, there are plenty of sonic adventures: "The Place I Live", bathed in synth drones and featuring reverential vocals by Elverum and Allyson Foster; the ambling, skittish, horn-peppered "Lone Bell"; an ominous, epic seven minute-plus title track that evokes a "clear moon in the black sky"; and "The Place Lives", ambient sheen with rock underpinnings that recall Elverum's black metal-informed 2009 Wind's Poem; and back to the cathedral of nature with the lush "Over Dark Water", featuring Geneviève Castrée. 

You reach a point--or many do anyway--when you stop sweating the small stuff and ponder the imponderables. And if you're gonna do that, there are few more glorious soundtracks for it than Mount Eerie. Phil Elverum delivers another stunner with Clear Moon.