Bon Iver hints at new album ahead of festival

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver posing with the Best Alternative Music Album award for "Bon Iver
AFP

New York (AFP) – Bon Iver, whose emotionally intense folk rock has won a strong following, is hinting it is ready with its first album in five years ahead of the band’s own festival.

The band led by Justin Vernon plays Friday at the second edition of the Eaux Claires festival, established last year in the group’s hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

The group said in June that it would devote its set to new music and recently posted on social media a cryptic video with abstract shapes, household items as well as crucifixes that float in the air beyond an open door.

Anticipation built Tuesday as the band posted similar imagery on Instagram and a mural appeared in Brooklyn with the same design along with the words, “22 Days – It Might Be Over Soon.”

Several social media users speculated that Bon Iver would debut an album entitled “22 Days” at the Eaux Claires festival, while others mused that the work would come out in 22 days.

Bon Iver first emerged with the 2007 album “For Emma, Forever Ago,” written by Vernon when he locked himself in a cabin in Wisconsin for three months as he struggled with illness, a break-up and professional obscurity.

The album gradually won acclaim for the emotional power of songs such as “Skinny Love.” The band followed up with a self-titled second album in 2011, winning two Grammy Awards including Best New Artist.

Vernon had spoken of retiring Bon Iver soon afterward but the band returned last year for the inaugural Eaux Claires festival and earlier this year toured Asia.

Vernon designed Eaux Claires with Aaron Dessner of The National, another indie band known for rich, dark textures, amid a proliferation of music festivals across North America.

Setting the festival in the woods, Vernon has vowed to give a unique aesthetic bent to Eaux Claires with the latest edition including literary readings, contemporary dance and selected artwork.

Other headliners at the festival will include Cornelius, the DJ who was a key figure in Japan’s Shibuya-kei alternative electronic scene in the 1990s, in a rare performance of his 1997 album “Fantasma.”

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