Geneviève Castrée Elverum, artist and wife of the Microphones and Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum, has died at age 35. The Canadian musician, writer and illustrator lived in Anacortes, Washington with her husband and their young child.
Recently performing under the name Ô PAON, Geneviève Elverum first released albums as Woelv on both K Records and her spouse's own P.W. Elverum & Sun label. Ô PAON issued five records thereafter, including last year's Fleuve LP.
Elverum was also an accomplished author, painter and cartoonist. Her first book of illustrations, Lait Frappé, was published in 2000 by Montreal's L'Oie de Cravan. She released a poetry volume titled Maman Sauvage last year.
News of Elverum's 14-month battle with cancer was made public last month when Mr. Elverum launched a GoFundMe page to help ease medical costs. The ensuing donations for the Elverum family reached nearly $200,000 in under a month.
In an update on the fundraising site from July 10, her widower disclosed the news of Geneviève's death, memorializing her artistic aptitude and creative spirit:
"It's all very sad and surreal. So much is left unfinished for her. She was a firehose of brilliant ideas that never turned off. We loved her and everything is weird now."
Mr. Elverum later published a public eulogy for his departed wife to his Facebook page, examining the profound grief of his partner's death while highlighting the grotesque inequity served by her passing:
"We probably all need to tell positive stories for us, the living, to be able to heal, but something in those platitudes sounds frustrating and diminishing. The injustice of her death, to me, looms larger than anything else and deserves to be screamed."
Watch a YouTube video of Geneviève performing with Mount Eerie at the Primavera Sound festival in 2013:
© 2024 Classicalite All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
