Jagjaguwar Debuts First Song From Volcano Choir’s Unmap, Island, IS

The origins of Unmap, the first collaboration between Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Milwaukee band Collections of Colonies of Bees, were recorded before For Emma, Forever Ago was mixed and mastered. Justin has credited The Volcano Choir collaborations with inspiring in him the creative courage to produce his much-beloved Bon Iver recordings.

Now more than three years in the making, Volcano Choir’s Unmap will be released on September 22 on Jagjaguwar. The first single, “Island, IS” is centrally constructed around the multi-layered loops by guitarist Chris Rosenau and microsecond cuts by Thomas Wincek. Justin, responsible for all of Volcano Choir’s vocals, crafted consonant harmonies. Not initially concerned with lyrics, the words that came from the sounds were secondary, but ended up a tremendously meaningful stream-of-consciousness.

Justin’s admiration for Collections of Colonies of Bees came from listening to and learning from their experimental processes – throwing and painting with chords, tones and percussion. The resulting collaboration is a genre-blurring musical expression that could not have come otherwise.

Listen to “Island, IS” HERE.