Justin's Fables

In this print exclusive for Singapore, Justin Vernon, known professionally as Bon Iver, intimates to AUGUSTMAN the inner workings of his monumentally excellent new album SABLE FABLE.

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THE FIRST BON IVER ALBUM in six years is a diptych. Two discs thread the 13-song collection together. The first, SABLE, is named after a shade whose connotations of darkness are to be understood as all-enveloping and impermeable while the second, fABLE, is a stirring rays-of-light testimony that complements the totality of life both sides create. The lush and searing emotive interplay between darkness and light finds its beating heart in the transition from somber folk to soul-charging R&B that Bon Iver performs on the record.

In his own words, the singer delves into the salmon coloured world of his fantastic and already-haunting fifth album, the one he calls his most honest yet.

fABLE FOLLOWING SABLE

They [SABLE & fABLE] were sort of cooking at the same time. For a minute, I thought I was working on one record: SABLE, fABLE—three songs were going to be super sad and eight were going to be happy or whatever. For instance, ‘Things Behind Things’ and ‘Speyside’ were around, but ‘Award Season’ didn't come until probably 2023. ‘Things Behind Things’ probably started at the beginning of 2020. And, ‘Peaceful Love’, the first full song on fABLE