Harmony in Ultraviolet

‘Volcano Choir’ is the name oddly given to Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver’s latest release, a collaboration project with the group of instru-mentalists from Collections of Colonies of Bees. And if ‘odd’ is a term that can ever be validly applied to the classification of music, then this absolute gem of a release brilliantly falls into that abstract category. No booming volcanic basses or baritones are found here in this medley of sound- instead we are treated to the high-pitch soul and trademark wistful tone of Vernon’s voice that so indelibly marked itself into our collective listening conscience with the seminal ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ back in 2007. Yet despite the meteoric rise of Bon Iver’s debut album, ‘Unmap’ is a release that seems to effortlessly eclipse the contemplative magnum opus that topped everyone’s ‘Album of the Year’ list with similar ease 12 months ago.

And, crucially, this is thanks to the creative brilliance of the two unassuming men that sit in the shadow of Vernon’s critical acclaim – Chris Rosenau and Jon Mueller, the figureheads of the musical collective known quirkily as Collections of Colonies of Bees. Born from the ashes of the math-rock giants Pele, Mueller and Rosenau – along with various other ex-Pele band members and musicians – introduce their polyrhythmic instrumentation and electronic bliss to create something that completely departs from the folksy, broken-acoustic sounds of his previous work under the Bon Iver moniker. This is an experimental album, a work that stubbornly refuses to be immediately understood; an album closer to the stripped-down minimalism of classical maestro Steve Reich than to the bluegrass storytelling of ‘For Emma…’, as Rosenau’s strings ‘n’ samples and Mueller’s percussion maintain the ‘choir’ arrangement to politely inform the crowd of expectant Bon Iver fans that this isn’t his sophomore follow-up solo album. No, this is far from it.

What the 9 different tracks of ‘Unmap’ present is a bizarrely beautiful assortment of sound and songwriting; initially conceived in 2005, we hear on this record a perfect unison between the artists, each with equal creative influence. On ‘Island, IS’ – the track clearly marked as the album’s first single – this unique folk-experimentalism truly comes into its own, as each individual member synergistically generates one of the album’s most surprising crescendos. The music constantly flirts between metred, mathematical minimalism, as Rosenau’s chirpy guitar samples arpeggiate and phase in and out of attention, and brooding passion, as Vernon’s voice fills the rhythmic spaces with reverberant words and pretty phrases that strike home resonantly. This blending of math-rock time signatures with the whimpers and howls of Vernon’s voice reaches an understatedly marvelous high-point at the end of Island, IS as his voice finally breaks out of the rhythmic, constraining framework of the song and spills out with: “Conserve it with an omelet // And you’re on it with the carpet…” As curious as the lyrics are, the words alone create aural poetry with their sonic bloom– and that is the real achievement of this collaboration. As a concept it makes nearly no sense – impossible to pigeonhole, with indefinable songwriting – and yet together, folk-favorite Justin Vernon and the Colonies… collective have created a captivating album that manages to retain the rustic campfire-folk atmosphere, whilst also venturing far into the experimental extreme. It’s odd and it’s bizarre… but if the ‘Midas Touch’ effect of Bon Iver has anything to do with it, it’s also going to be very, very big.

[youtube width="565" height="350"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPBemYzefzk[/youtube]

Keep your ears tuned.