Send "Volcano Choir " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 There's a moment in "The Wolves (Act I and II)", a song on Justin Vernon's debut album as Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago, where you first suspect that there's more going on with this dude than meets the eye. Up until that point, the record is, as advertised, ascetic and stripped down, the product of a person alone in a cabin for months with only a guitar for company. The songs early on bring to mind snow, wood, creaky furniture, drawn breaths-- organic materials that could have been just as easily assembled 80 years ago. But as Vernon sings the "what might have been lost" refrain in "Wolves", you hear something strange creeping in: One of the many voices, which are layered and harmonized, both full and falsetto, is run through some kind of vocoder-like effect. It's subtle at first, added without drawing much attention to itself, but it even so it feels like the floor dropping out. Just like that, the song is broken wide open, and Vernon's music is infused with a sense of unexpected possibility.That boundless feeling was confirmed on Bon Iver's Blood Bank EP, released at the beginning of this year. One if its songs, "Woods", was an a cappella number with every voice processed, as Vernon stretched and trilled the phrases like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and T-Pain. Yes, these effects became absurdly ubiquitous last year, and the mere fact that it was used was nothing special. But Vernon is operating in a milieu-- an emotionally driven singer-songwriter on a noted indie rock label-- where people don't usually do such things. Especially so early in a promising career, where you're not sure how your audience might react. My sense is that Vernon was able to put expectations aside; he had a sound in mind and he went for it, without worrying too much about what a "Bon Iver" song should be. And that in itself was exciting....full text |
| Yahoo |
| Though you might be able to just about summon up his name if pushed, earnest US folkie Justin Vernon never exactly got famous. What garnered worldwide notoriety in all actuality was the log cabin he frequented, the bitter isolation of its location in Wisconsin woodland and the heartache that haunted him during his infamous soul-searching midwinter retreat. His success as Bon Iver with the album "For Emma, Forever Ago" belongs as much to the mythology that grew up around it as anything else. Which surely spelt all host of challenges for the man Justin and his acoustic guitar when they set about following up that album without all of those things. Bon Iver's "Blood Bank EP", from earlier this year, did offer some tentative hope, proffering dreamy moments both solidly hand-crafted and more liberally experimental over its four tracks, but nothing to match the delicate flight of the album. By choosing the culmination of years of collaborative work with fellow Wisconsinites Collections Of Colonies Of Bees as his next full length release, under the name Volcano Choir, he has quite cleverly managed to not just diffuse the pressure bearing down on him but to simultaneously sustain his reputation also. That it is a beautifully realised set of textures and sounds certainly helps, as does the fact that its keenly abstract, exploratory bent makes any attempted comparisons with his debut album practically meaningless....full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| In the highlight of my inglorious musical career so far, I performed at All Tomorrow’s Parties' May event, curated by The Breeders. Also appearing (though sadly missed by this writer) was Bon Iver - aka Justin Vernon - responsible for For Emma, Forever Ago one of 2008’s best albums – probably one of the decade’s best when all is said and tallied. I spent most of the aforementioned weekend behind the tables at ATP selling merchandise. The only time my plateau of perma-drunk sitting off was interrupted was when somebody wanted to buy Bon Iver merchandise. Lots of it. They bought the album on CD and on vinyl, they bought one of several t-shirt designs, and copies of the latest EP. I would wager Bon Iver outsold every other artist at the festival (one including The Breeders, Foals and CSS). People don't just connect with his music - they treasure it....full text |
Volcano Choir lyrics
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