Today, Justin Vernon announces the release of SABLE,: three intimate songs that together serve as a reset and reintroduction. Arriving October 18th via Jagjaguwar, the EP marks the first new Bon Iver record in more than five years, while stripping the project down to the primary elements on which it was originally founded. Before being Bon Iver meant playing a part.
Emerging from a slow-burning breakdown – possibly done with music, thinking increasingly about the process of healing – SABLE, is a space for Vernon to unpack the darkness, pressure and anxiety that amounted to one of the most trying periods of his life. “I know now that I can’t make good, how I wish I could,” he sings in the opening line of “S P E Y S I D E,” an apology to some loved ones he hurt, written during a moment of clarity in 2021. “I got the best of me,” he later admits. “I really damn been on such a violent spree.”
Luister naar ‘Speyside’ en krijg een inkijkje in de studio
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The triptych of songs on SABLE, written from 2020-2023, were recorded at April Base in Wisconsin, but conceived in places like Key West and the Isles of Minneapolis. Produced by Justin Vernon and Jim-E Stack – with viola from Rob Moose on “S P E Y S I D E,” and contributions from other close collaborators throughout – each of the EP’s arrangements are centered around voice and guitar. Named for near-blackness, SABLE,’s lyrics are direct projections of guilt, anguish and turmoil, but also unfinished business.
Since 2019’s i,i – which earned a GRAMMY® nomination for Album of The Year, and turned Bon Iver into a world-touring, arena-filling festival headliner – Justin Vernon has worked with everyone from Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen to Zach Bryan and Travis Scott, performed for Kamala Harris and more. Through it all he often intentionally hid his face, but now, the blinds are open.
Beginning with the word “I” and ending with “everything we’ve made,” SABLE, is an unburdening and a transformation. A turning of the page, and the start of a new story.
