When Bon Iver so much as alludes to having new music in the works, listeners go crazy.
In September, Justin Vernon shared his first his first slice of solo music in four years (aside from Bon Iver’s 10th Anniversary re-release in 2022.) The 10-second snippet spawned engagement from a diverse crowd, uniting hip-hop heads with folk fans and country connoisseurs in the comments section.
With recent collaborations ranging from Taylor Swift to Travis Scott, Bon Iver’s versatility knows no bounds, with the artist’s esoteric music cementing itself in the collective cultural conscience. Hard to define and even harder to cleanly categorize, Bon Iver has never sacrificed the abstractness of his artistry, and this next stop on his sonic evolution is no exception.
The aforementioned snippet was revealed to be the single “S P E Y S I D E” a few days later, the song marking the first Bon Iver studio release since sporadic singles “PDLIF” and “AUATC” from 2020.
On September 20, the same day “S P E Y S I D E” dropped, Vernon also announced Bon Iver’s first EP in four years: SABLE, (yes, the album’s title includes the comma). With the long-awaited project’s release date now less than two weeks away, we’ve compiled all the information we have on SABLE, thus far.
Named for its definition of “near blackness,” SABLE, will consist of three songs and an 11-second introductory track. It also marks Bon Iver’s first studio project since i,i, in 2019. Before i,i, came 22, A Million, the 2016 album that marked a stark shift in Bon Iver’s sound, pivoting into electronic, synthesizer-spun music and leaving behind the folk trappings of his previous projects.
SABLE, however, is set to indicate a “reset and reintroduction” for Bon Iver, “stripping the project down to the primary elements on which it was originally founded,” per a press release. Production comes from Vernon and Jim-E Stack, and the triptych of songs is led by a “voice and guitar-centric” arrangement.
“While there are the usual collaborators on this record providing pedal steel (Greg Leisz), fiddle (Rob Moose), saxophone (Michael Lewis), and trumpet (Trever Hagen), SABLE, is largely defined by Vernon’s voice and guitar,” reads the album’s description on Bon Iver’s website, noting a strong sonic departure from i,i and potentially hinting at a return to the sound that defines the group’s first three projects: For Emma, For Ever Ago (2008), Blood Bank (2009) and Bon Iver (2011).
Described in the album’s description as “an externalized projection of [Vernon’s] turmoil,” all three songs were written at Vernon’s April Base home in Wisconsin between the years of 2020 and 2023. A look back at one of “the most trying periods of his life,” SABLE, is a sonic time capsule of the COVID-19 pandemic; at that point, Vernon found himself navigating complicated feelings about the music industry and his career, leaving him unsure as to whether he wanted to continue as an artist.
“THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS” was the first track of the three created, written in 2020. The album’s only pre-release single, “S P E Y S I D E,” debuted on Bon Iver’s first post-pandemic run of shows in 2021; the group continued to tease the track live on their most recent tour in 2023. “AWARDS SEASON” has yet to surface in any capacity.
Aside from a few publicist-helmed paragraphs, there’s ultimately no clear blueprint for Bon Iver’s SABLE,.
Only time will tell how the folk imprint intends to interpret the sounds of solitude, so tune back in when SABLE, drops everywhere on Friday, October 18.
SABLE, Tracklist
1. …
2. THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS
3. S P E Y S I D E
4. AWARDS SEASON
