After the emotional breakup of his long-time band, Vernon moved to a quiet cabin in Northwestern, WI, in search of simple work and an introspective lifestyle. The result was "For Emma, Forever Ago," a brilliantly quiet album that draws on his personal loneliness and loss. Though he claims that the album "wasn't planned...[t]he goal was to hibernate," he spent hours a day recording the emotional complexities of his sound into a few microphones. The result was a breakthrough album that almost didn't get released, but when it did, "For Emma" became the indie anthem album of the year. Its popularity snowballed by word of mouth, people falling in love with the story of its conception as well as the sparse instrumentals and primal vocals.

Three years later, Vernon is back with his follow up, a brave foray in a new musical direction. The eponymous release is at its heart melancholic, just like "For Emma", but it's bigger and shinier. Vernon has added collaborators, more layers, more instruments, and more palpable feeling to this new release. Just as "For Emma" was a portrait of Vernon's surroundings during that lonely winter, each of the songs in "Bon Iver, Bon Iver" portray a place--"Perth" was described by Vernon as a "Civil War-sounding heavy metal song," and the song "Minnesota, WI" was described as featuring "finger-picked guitars, double bass drums and distorted bass saxophone."

Bon Iver currently has a number of performances lined up in Europe, with stops in Ireland, France, Germany and Norway.

Website: http://www.boniver.org/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/boniver


Set List:
HOLOCENE
BEACH BABY
BETH/REST
                            

Recent Release: Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Release Date: June 21, 2011
Label: Jagjaguwar

Band Origin: Eau Claire, Wisconsin