Sauna (Mount Eerie album)

Sauna is a 2015 studio album by Mount Eerie, the musical project of Phil Elvrum (later known as Phil Prazek). Released on February 3, 2015, by P.W. Elvrum & Sun, Sauna marks a departure from the more lo-fi, emotionally raw soundscapes of Elvrum’s earlier work, incorporating elements of black metal, drone, and free jazz into a densely layered and intensely focused sonic landscape.

The album explores themes of masculinity, nature, isolation, and the cyclical nature of time. Elvrum describes Sauna as a world unto itself, filled with imagined landscapes and symbolic imagery drawn from Norse mythology, Finnish culture, and personal experiences. Unlike many of his previous releases, Sauna features a wider array of instrumentation, including distorted guitars, synthesizers, and various percussion instruments, all treated with heavy reverb and delay.

Lyrically, Sauna eschews traditional narrative structures in favor of evocative, often cryptic imagery. Elvrum's vocals are frequently distorted and buried within the mix, contributing to the album's overall atmosphere of unease and disorientation. The album is often interpreted as a meditation on the complexities of human existence and the relationship between the individual and the vastness of the natural world.