Volcano Choir

The critical success of his 2008 Bon Iver album For Emma, Forever Ago threatened to pigeonhole Justin Vernon as that folk songwriter who recorded an album in the woods, but Vernon's many follow-up projects have challenged that stereotype. As surprising as Vernon's recent collaborations with Kanye West or his soft-rock flirtations with Gayngs was Volcano Choir's Unmap, his 2009 album with members of the Milwaukee post-rock band Collections of Colonies of Bees. The album was an ambient, sometimes seemingly free-form collection that heavily distorted Vernon's rich voice. Volcano Choir has played only a handful of shows behind that record, most of them in Japan, and this Milwaukee show is their only scheduled U.S. performance.