Bon Iver fans tuning in for the midnight release of the Justin Vernon-led project’s first new song in four years, “S P E Y S I D E,” were greeted with an even bigger surprise: the announcement of a three-song EP, SABLE, due Oct. 18 from Jagjaguwar. Beyond the single, it includes the tracks “THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS” and “AWARDS SEASON.”
The former has been performed on a couple of occasions since 2020, and shares the sparse, acoustic-driven vibe of “S P E Y S I D E.” All three were recorded between 2020-2023 at Vernon’s Wisconsin-based April Base studio, with production assistance from Jim-E Stack. Vernon says he wrote the material in such far-flung locales as Key West, Fla., and the Isles of Minneapolis. The title references “near blackness,” and the lyrics are said to reckon with “guilt, anguish and turmoil, but also unfinished business.”
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The artist is said to have emerged “from a slow-burning breakdown” during which he considered retiring from music, while also “thinking increasingly about the process of healing. These songs are vehicles “to unpack the darkness, pressure and anxiety that amounted to one of the most trying periods of his life.”
A Erinn Springer-direcred, black-and-white video for “S P E Y S I D E” is out now, in which Vernon shows off a new, David Crosby-length hairstyle while strumming his guitar and lying face up on a bed next to an open window.
SABLE, follows the 2020 Bon Iver one-offs “PDLIF” and “AUTC.” Vernon has also appeared on songs by several other artists in recent years, including Big Red Machine, the National and Zach Bryan.
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