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Capturing Bon Iver’s Ethereal Sound
There’s potentially no bigger or oddly spelled name in modern folk music than Bon Iver, an artist whose simple, atmospheric arrangements and heart-wrenching falsetto have brought him massive commercial success. Even while collaborating with pop stars over nearly two decades, he’s never compromised on his folky roots. For Emma, Forever Ago was a turning point for folk transitioning from the harshness of Neutral Milk Hotel to quiet introspection, and 22, A Million proved that deeply experimental music won’t always kill an artist’s career. With Bon Iver’s next album SABLE, fABLE releasing this April, it’s the perfect time to spotlight artists who have adopted Bon Iver’s introspective songwriting and gentle atmospheres into their own music.
Haley Heynderickx: Warmth in Words
Armed with a heavily religious upbringing in a Filipino household, Haley Heynderickx’s 2018 breakout record I Need to Start a Garden weaves together stories about gardening, spoiled milk, and trapping bugs in jars that transport you back to the heavily worn neighborhood swing set on a warm summer’s day. Similar to Bon Iver, Heynderickx utilizes her minimal arrangements and expressive voice to elevate her stories, creating tracks that feel like the slightly humorous lullabies a mother might sing to a homesick child. Once her debut album finally found its audience after going viral on TikTok in 2023, Heynderickx got back to the studio releasing Seed of a Seed in November 2024, serving her new fans a fresh helping of the warmth we’ve all come to crave.
Angelo de Augustine: A Dictionary of Love
Angelo de Augustine may be most known as a collaborator of legendary artist Sufjan Stevens, but he’s actually somewhat of Stevens’ foil. He downplays the flamboyance and sprawling stories to instead focus on grounded depictions of love and relationships. On his 2019 album Tomb, Augustine loads tracks with direct conversations to a past lover that feel like departing partners admitting that their differences can’t be reconciled. Augustine’s quiet falsetto adds to this illusion, leaving lyrics to be read like the final whispered words of a lover closing the door one last time. His 2023 album Toil and Trouble was his most musically experimental but echoes Bon Iver’s own musical evolutions by keeping the ever present falsetto and sorrowful writing. We haven’t heard from Augustine since 2023, but his next project will surely deliver the softness and passion we’ve come to expect.
Leif Vollebekk: An Instrumental Delight
Leif Vollebekk has been in the indie folk game since 2010, and his debut album Inland immediately put his talents on display. As a multi-instrumentalist, Vollebekk builds immersive, lush soundscapes by combining acoustic guitar, piano, violin, etc. These combos allow his tracks to be very diverse and tempered by better pairing lyrics and instruments. In his 2013 album North Americana, tracks leap across the compositional spectrum with piano ballads, dusty guitar-driven folk songs, harmonica solos, and the occasional crying violin. Much like Bon Iver’s collaborations with big artists, the elevated pop influence of Vollebekk’s most recent album Revelation allows even more compositional expression, with tracks like “Moondog” and “Rock and Roll” respectively being the most down to earth and loudest tracks he’s ever recorded. With such an expansive repertoire of sounds, he’s certainly an artist to keep an eye on.
Aubrey Key: The Mundane Made Fun
Aubrey Key excels at depicting mundane, authentic American life in a way that’s both humorous and thought-provoking. His 2020 album Cow is a rough-around-the-edges look into literal flies on the wall, broken mirrors, art of a cow, and being judged by old ladies for having dyed hair. It follows in the footsteps of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago with the raw production and conversational vocal delivery, firmly cementing the album as a work of rural art. Key’s 2023 track “Date Night At Daddy Joe’s” is the perfect depiction of a standard date night, equating the wonderful smell and taste of a local barbeque restaurant to how he feels about his partner. While not always the most mature — he’s released songs about truck nuts and books of sex poses — it’s the rawness that keeps me coming back.
Sadurn: Like an Old Friend
Although not directly folk-influenced, Sadurn earned their recognition by simply having as soft and beautiful of songwriting as Bon Iver himself. On their 2022 debut album Radiator, each track is filled with the deeply intimate, soft voice and guitar of Genevieve DeGroot, whose wispy, light voice carries the lyrics to your ears like a soft breeze. DeGroot’s writing style is very conversational, like an old friend recapping their adventures after months of distance. For the 2024 film I Saw the TV Glow, Sadurn composed “How Can I Get Out?” a song that perfectly balances DeGroot’s conversational style and typical themes with the film’s metaphors on identity, love, and acceptance. Sadurn fits perfectly alongside the film’s other featured artists like yeule, Florist, and Phoebe Bridgers, proving that they have the chops to run with songwriting giants.
Artists Capturing the Art of Folk
Folk is a genre that easily falls flat when it’s not infused with amazing songwriting and composition. It’s why artists like Bon Iver have come to dominate folk listeners' playlists. Such a high level of talent in both areas is rare, but it’s not unheard of. That’s where these five artists come in. Each of them excel in some aspect of composition, songwriting, or both. They’re undeniably talented and undeniably deserve to be on your radar.
