Phil Elverum’s last full-length release was an elaborate one: Microphones In 2020, a one-track, 44-minute behemoth that resurrected the Microphones name for a deep dive into his own biography, the themes and impulses that have long inspired his work, and “the true state of all things.” His next release will be much simpler.

On the newly announced Foghorn Tape, Elverum is keeping the Microphones “reunion” going rather than return to his longtime Mount Eerie moniker, but it’s a radically different kind of Microphones album. As explained in Elverum’s announcement on Twitter today, the project comprises “background noise, no songs, no music.” A blurb on his P.W. Elverum & Sun website elaborates, “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. Ambient noise. Blank ocean.” Although the title lends itself to a cassette release, Foghorn Tape will only be available on clear vinyl, with no digital option — so if you want to hear this particular “100% background noise,” you’re going to have to buy it.

Foghorn Tape is available for purchase here as of today for $22. Revisit our 2018 interview with Elverum here and our retrospective on the Microphones’ It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water here.