![]() Vernon sampled the voices of others on 22, A Million, but in that context they felt more like dolls he’d animated than human beings. ![]() Even Young Thug collaborator Wheezy has composing and production credits. James Blake, Moses Sumney, and Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, among others, pop up throughout. Still, there are plenty of invited guests to provide cover, or at least offer their company. Songs like “Marion” and “Holyfields,” are uncharacteristically unadorned, even compared to the For Emma and Blood Bank era, when Vernon was at least joined by his own echoes. “I like you/And that ain’t nothing new,” he sings simply on “iMi.” Later, on “RABi,” he observes, “Well, it’s all just scared of dying.” These things don’t always merit saying out loud, but Vernon seems to be singing them to rediscover their meaning, and the music feels equally straightforward and searching. The lyrics find Vernon locating peace within the ordinary and everyday. These songs don’t swallow you whole with grandeur they look outward, leaving some room for the rest of the world. But the mood he conjures with these elements feels new. Acoustic guitar, horns, and piano return to prominence alongside the jittery electronics and synths that Vernon has lately favored. All the familiar elements are here-impressionist swells of sound, impenetrable-yet-tender lyrics, mesmerizing studio tricks-and they are buoyed by Vernon’s supple baritone, the instrument he knows how to manipulate best. Justin Vernon takes the Bon Iver sound and reassembles it like a cubist collage, with his voice right out front. It can be how important the self is and how unimportant the self is, how we’re all connected.There’s no more hiding on i,i. It can mean deciphering and bolstering one’s identity. Vernon adds, “The title of the record can mean whatever it means to you or me. ![]() Freed from the vocal distortion that once mirrored a period of fear and panic, he sings about the balance between the individual and the community, inspiration and creation. The tenure at Sonic Ranch brought Vernon to a calmed creative state that he channeled into the heart of each song. And in many ways the story of the album is the story of those six weeks rather than the almost six years of some of the songs.” “I don’t think I left the property in six weeks. “It allowed us to feel confident and comfortable, to be completely free of distraction,” says Vernon of the move. When sessions for i,i moved from April Base to Sonic Ranch, Bon Iver took full advantage of the facility, sometimes utilizing all five of the studio’s live rooms simultaneously. The core band for the i,i sessions included Sean Carey, Andrew Fitzpatrick, Mike Lewis, Matt McCaughan, and Justin Vernon with Rob Moose and Jenn Wasner, plus contributions from James Blake, BJ Burton, Brad andPhil Cook, Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Trever Hagen, Zach Hanson, Bruce Hornsby, Channy Leaneagh, Rob Moose, Naeem, Velvet Negroni, Buddy Ross, Marta Salogni, Francis Starlite, Moses Sumney, and the members of TU Dance. And then you can put that perspective into more honest, generous work.” “It feels like when you get through all this life, when the sun starts to set, and what happens is you start gaining perspective. “It feels very much like the most adult record, the most complete,” says Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. In 2016’s 22, A Million, Vernon came to see something different again: “it was,” he says, “our crazy energy Summer record.” The band’s fourth album, i,i, completes this cycle: a Fall record, Vernon says, autumn-coloured, ruminative, steeped. Its successor, the self-titled Bon Iver, Bon Iver, brought something more frenetic, the rise and whirr of burgeoning Spring, of hope and sap and movement. When Bon Iver released For Emma, Forever Ago in early 2008 it introduced Justin Vernon as one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation and revealed a sound that was distinct - tethered to time and to place, to a season of contemplation and the crisp, heart-strung isolation of a northern Winter. Here, 1500 miles from Wisconsin, from where this all began, a new season. On a pecan ranch east of El Paso, its orchards running down to the Mexican border and the waters of the Rio Grande, a thrum of activity - song, saxophone, dancers, drums, guitar, synths the sound of something taking shape. The air bright with red-tailed hawk and blue bunting, with the shink and rattle of the green jay. The light low and the days still warm and sweet.
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