Justin Vernon made a splash with his secluded cabin tear-jerking
For Emma, Forever Ago, but thankfully we're not always in the mood to
cry hysterically to "Skinny Love." And thankfully the fragile falsetto of
Bon Iver can be applied to many sounds, especially when versatile musicians are thrown into the mix. Enter
Collections of Colonies of Bees, a hive of fellow Wisconsonites with a taste for the synthesized. The two have joined forces for a project they've dubbed
Volcano Choir, and we've got a taste of their forthcoming debut,
Unmap.
The group consists of Vernon, as well as Wisconsinites Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Jim Schoenecker, Daniel Spack, and Thomas Wincek. The material predates Bon Iver, as the group met Vernon in 2005 when they were touring with his previous band, DeYarmond Edison. Since then, Bon Iver has become a (music lover's) household name, and the group of musicians finally decide to take the opportunity to put their ideas on tape. In 2008 the record came together entirely in a studio in Fall Creek, WI, owned by Vernon and his brother, Nate. The result is an experiment: drum patterns and instrumental cartwheels, with a subtle choral beauty added by Vernon's voice and lyricism.
The first cut to be streamed, "Island, IS" is full of looped horns and drums, with Vernon's trademark voice providing a human grounding on top of the jazzy, sprightly progression. Check it out on the bands MySpace. And catch
Unmap when it drops on September 22nd. -
joe puglisi
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Volcano Choir on Myspace