Bon Iver returns with "S P E Y S I D E," announces new EP SABLE,
The artist also released a gorgeous new song and accompanying video today called "S P E Y S I D E"
Photo: Erinn Springer
For Bon Iver, everything old is new again. The artist (a.k.a. Justin Vernon) just announced an extremely welcome three-song EP called SABLE,—his first new music under the Bon Iver name since 2019’s i,i.
The new tracks “serve as a reset and reintroduction,” Vernon said in a press release, noting that he was “stripping the project down to the primary elements on which it was originally founded.” You can hear that directive in his delicate, meditative new track “S P E Y S I D E,” which sees the artist return after so many years to the sound he pioneered over a decade ago in songs like “Blood Bank” and “Re: Stacks.”
“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,” the press release continues. You can hear that raw emotion all over the lyrics of the new song, as well as the album’s title, which was “named for near-blackness” itself.
“I know now that I can’t make good/I wish I could,” Vernon sings at the beginning of the track, with only his acoustic guitar for company. Later, he closes with, “But maybe you can still make a man from me/here on Speyside quay/with what’s left of me/as you live and breathe/I really know now what had hold on me.”
With his autumn-themed album i,i, Vernon finished the seasons cycle he began in 2007 with For Emma, Forever Ago (winter) and continued through 2011 with Bon Iver, Bon Iver (spring) and 2016 with 22, A Million (summer). In the interim, the artist has worked with countless other musicians like Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Zach Bryan, The National‘s Aaron Dessner for their joint side project Big Red Machine, and more. It seems only fitting, though, that to revive the project that started it all, Vernon would go back to the winter—or whatever winter looks like now.
SABLE, will be available October 18. You can listen to “S P E Y S I D E” below: