DeYarmond Edison (Justin Vernon, Joe Westerlund, Brad Cook, Phil Cook) – Epoch

Description

DeYarmond Edison was the precursor to Bon Iver, Megafaun, and Field Report. Justin Vernon went on to create Bon Iver. Brad Cook, Phil Cook, and Joe Westerlund formed the folk group Megafaun, and Christopher Porterfield began composing, eventually establishing Field Report.

The Epoch Box Set contains 5xLP, 4xCD and book encapsulating the work of DeYarmond Edison, featuring LP albums Silent Signs (generally available on DSPs), hazeltons (precursor to For Emma…), All of Us Free, Epoch, etc., and Where We Belong (these three are previously unreleased and contain original tracklistings plus bonus audio). The 4 CDs are live audio captures from a residency at North Carolina’s Bickett Gallery and Wisconsin’s Mabel Tainter. The box set also contains download card with bonus online-only tracks,  plus ~114 page book containing stories, photos, archived materials (setlists, lyric sheets, etc.) to document the history of the band.

Epoch is the story of DeYarmond Edison: Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon and Joe Westerlund, told as never before. It’s a tale of community, vision, family, and a quartet that wanted to be too good to last. Rendered in maximalist detail, Epoch explores their saga while also telling a more universal tale: it explores and celebrates what everyone else is doing, making and building outside those cities that live under a microscope. It treats “small town shit” with the canonical care it deserves.

Scenes, especially the so-called small ones, are stitched together by the friendships and relationships that lock arms to build it. In this way, Epoch is also a friendship fable; “There’s a coming of age when it comes together,” describes Executive Producer Grayson Haver Currin, “and a coming of age when it breaks apart.” The epilogue is nice-to-have – where are they now, and so on – but it’s not the story. The story is the moment, which is the people, which is the friendships, which is the scene, which is the moment.