Unmap - Volcano ChoirCollaboration from Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Collections of Colonies of Bees gives us Volcano Choir. Beautifully Bizarre.
Mixed opinions on this one. I love that Justin is as ambitious as he is but the heavily instrumental and sparse arrangements leave much to be desired for me. It sounds more like a small collection of songs strung together with outtakes from studio sessions given the ‘alone in the woods’ treatment Bon Iver has now mastered. I enjoy minimalism in music but get lost when I feel the intent is to push listeners past a point of focus and trail off with no intent to retain or draw back. Thom Yorke explores as well as anyone as we have been reminded again this year, but he never loses me despite what I take to be some of better attempts.
"Island, IS" comes as a hands down winner and is among my favorite songs of the year. If more of the tracks had this kind of direction I feel the overall project would be more of a success had the outfit followed a more structured approach. Some can argue that the point of this project was to explore new soundscapes, I can’t argue, but I’ll leave exploring soundscapes to Califone.
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