Bon Iver announces SABLE with new track 'S P E Y S I D E'

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon today announces the release of SABLE - three intimate songs that together serve as a reset and reintroduction. Landing on 18th October via Jagjaguwar, the EP marks the first new Bon Iver record in over five years, while taking the project back to the primary elements on which it was originally founded.

SABLE is available to pre-order and pre-save here.

Emerging from a slow-burning breakdown - possibly done with music, contemplating about the process of healing more and more - SABLE offers a space for Vernon to unpack the darkness, pressure and anxiety that amounted to one of the most trying periods of his life.

The announcement is accompanied by the release of SABLE's lead single, 'S P E Y S I D E', an acoustic powerhouse performance from Vernon, marking a departure from his shift towards the experimental and electronic soundscapes that first showed inklings in 2011's Bon Iver, Bon Iver and became fully realised on 2016's 22, A Million. 

"I know now that I can't make good, how I wish I could", he sings in the opening line of ‘S P E Y S I D E’, an apology to some loved ones he hurt, written during a moment of clarity in 2021. "I got the best of me", he later admits. "I really damn been on such a violent spree."

The soft bed of strumming and falsetto humming begets a shift towards the sound captured on Bon Iver's earlier releases, namely his debut album For Emma, Forever Ago, which was recorded in Vernon's father's hunting cabin in Eau Claire, Wisconsin - the singer's hometown and home base all these years later.

The triptych of tracks on SABLE, written from 2020-2023, were recorded at Vernon's April Base studios on his ranch in western Wisconsin, but conceived in places like Key West and the Isles of Minneapolis. Produced by Justin Vernon and Jim-E Stack – with viola from Rob Moose on ‘S P E Y S I D E’, and contributions from other close collaborators throughout – each of the EP’s arrangements are centered around voice and guitar. Named for near-blackness, SABLE,’s lyrics are direct projections of guilt, anguish and turmoil, but also unfinished business.

Since 2019’s i,i – which earned a GRAMMY nomination for Album of The Year, and turned Bon Iver into a world-touring, arena-filling festival headliner – Justin Vernon has worked with everyone including Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Zach Bryan, performed for Kamala Harris and more. Through it all he often intentionally hid his face, but now, the blinds are open.

Beginning with the word “I” and ending with ‘everything we’ve made’, SABLE, is an unburdening and a transformation. A turning of the page, and the start of a new story.