Unmap

So this is the story of Justin Vernon, of Bon Iver fame, so far: guy plays in a few bands in the Wisconsin indie scene for a couple of years, breaks up with his girlfriend, goes native and records the album of the year in a small log cabin with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a whole lot of heartbreak at his disposal. Guy goes on to become wildly successful, with all the songs from his debut featured in every American TV show under the sun to try to express the kind of sadness Vernon managed to articulate so beautifully. The question is: where does the guy go from there? Well he decides to hook up with his friends from the ‘post-folk’ outfit Collection of Colonies of Bees and release Unmap.

Volcano Choir sees Vernon drop what won him so many fans for his work as Bon Iver; that stark, upfront, emotional mysticism. They don’t ‘do’ songs, instead they create huge soundscapes, formless, fluid, but striking. What Volcano Choir do ‘do’ is artistry. They paint elaborate autumnal landscapes, vividly and clearly. The opener ‘Husks and Shells’ flutters, majestic and beautiful, only to settle round Vernon’s voice when the music re-enters having dropped out, a guitar picks up, dancing around Vernon’s voice like golden autumn leaves. The album is rather like a journey through a forest. The second song, ‘Sleepymouth’, sees the introduction of a propulsive, insistent drum beat that capitalises upon the wonderful evocations in the first piece. The guitar bursts through the landscape that the Choir have created. The composition is so refined that when the distorted guitar bursts through so heavy Vernon’s voice drops, too heavy to sustain, and the drums take over, galloping until the end, toying with remaining flickers of the guitar.

This is not an album of songs, but if there is one, then Island IS, is it, the song has an almost dancey drum beat leaps as Vernon croons poetically over the top. What is truly refreshing about Unmap is how happy Vernon sounds. Unlike the heartbreak of Foreverago, we get to hear a totally different side of Vernon, on ‘Mbria’ he and the Collection of Colony sound like something out of ‘Swordfishtrombones’. These four songs at the centre of the album illustrate the kind of band the Choir have formed; bold and experimental, but perfectly formed. Those four songs are followed by ‘Still’ a reworking of ‘Woods’ from the Blood Bank EP, which actually sounds like a petrified forest that Vernon’s vocoded voice sweeps through. The album is closed by a minimal folk-soul number, as Vernon channels his blues influences around an ethereal composition.Unmap does just that: it tears the traditional forms of folk music down and reassembles them in a compelling collage of sounds, and a cohesive piece of artistry.