Bon Iver began as a private escape for musician Justin Vernon, former guitarist and vocalist for DeYarmond Edison. A social hibernation at his father’s cabin in rural Wisconsin soon opened a floodgate of creativity that evolved into its own musical entity. Relying simply on his own voice, a Silvertone guitar, his brother’s old drum set, and very few other instruments, Vernon used the basic recording equipment he had on hand to develop a series of lushly layered choral sounds backed by the subtle melodic ebbs of his acoustic guitar.

Vernon’s three-month seclusion led to the conception of Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, which was entirely self-recorded and released to surprising critical acclaim in the summer of 2007, resulting in the band’s signing with indie label Jagjaguwar.

Bon Iver is a phrase taken from the French bon hiver, meaning literally “good winter.” It is a greeting, celebration, and a sentiment embodied by the simultaneous mood of dark isolation and communal warmth evoked on Bon Iver’s tracks. Vernon’s painful falsetto effortlessly swells and fades, becoming both a graceful orchestral component as well as a means of expressing the lonely solitude of the coldest season.

The influence of Vernon’s prior personal history –- the dissolution of his longtime band, the end of a romantic relationship, and a bout of serious illness — are as intertwined with the melancholic vocals and minimalist guitar as is the bleak midwinter setting of its creation. Rolling Stone called the work a “quiet marvel,” and Pitchfork described it as “the sound of a man left alone with his memories and a guitar.”

Bon Iver’s release, 2009’s EP Blood Bank, is a four-track collection following in the same vein as Vernon’s first recordings, albeit with the added warmth of additional musicians and instrumental sounds to their former aesthetic of quiet desperation.

Opening for Bon Iver was Durham, North Carolina-based Megafaun, a band born from the ashes of Vernon’s previous venture, DeYarmond Edison. Megafaun has developed a distinctly American musical language that is exquisitely translated by Gather, Form & Fly. Stereogum described the tracks as “mournful, slow-blooming banjo-and-white-noise-laced epics” culminating in a record that is an ode to death, love, musical history, community, tradition, and experimentation. Megafaun’s live sets promise to deviate from standard musical recitation, infusing the collective spirit of their pieces with spontaneity and group improvisation.