PureVolume

Justin Vernon, former songwriter/singer/guitarist of the much heralded, former Eau Claire, WI based, Raleigh, NC implanted band, DeYarmond Edison, arrives back home with a new project - one that he created over the course of three months this past winter in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin, isolated from all in his father's hunting cabin with nothing more than a few select microphones and a handful of ancient instruments.

Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair; French for "good winter" and spelled wrong on purpose) is a greeting, a celebration and a sentiment. It is a new statement of an artist moving on and establishing the groundwork for a lasting career. For Emma, Forever Ago is the debut of this lineage of songs and what has been dubbed by those most familiar with his music: Vernon's best work to date.

As a whole, the record is entirely cohesive throughout and remains centered around a particular aesthetic, prompted by the time and place for which it was recorded. Each track consist of thick layers draped in lush choral walls, with rarely more than an ancient acoustic guitar or the occasional bass drum providing structure. Vernon sings the majority of the record in falsetto, which painfully expresses the meanings behind its overt, yet strangely entangled words. This newfound vocal path acts as each song's main character and source of melody and immediately separates listeners from any of Vernon's old material, where he lurked over his songs in a scratchy baritone.

Vernon will be assembling a team of musicians to take Bon Iver on the road in support of For Emma throughout this coming year and beyond, and plans to run with the project as far as it may lead.

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