Bon Iver

Retreating to a log cabin in the wintry Northwestern woods to hibernate, and emerging with a nine-track, self-recorded—betwixt trips with an ax to chop wood—full-length makes for precious kindling beneath the Jajaguwar marketing fire. But For Emma, Forever Ago, the sparse solo debut from Bon Iver—aka Justin Vernon—is far from smoke and mirrors, leaving behind glowing embers that linger long after the flames burn down. Composed of not much else than solid sheets of hollow acoustic guitar, sometimes backed with softly tapped rhythms and topped with multiple track overdubs where Vernon's steely falsetto soars, it's clear that three solitary months in the frozen wilderness paradoxically provided the glow necessary to melt away the layers of ice encasing ragged, emotional source material that comes through in his work. With Phosphorescent and White Hinterland. AJA PECKNOLD
Wed., March 26, 8 p.m., 2008