How Bon Iver’s live sound design prioritises fan experience and “what goes into their ears”
Bon Iver‘s premium sound system providers, L-Acoustics, have spoken to NME about the future of live sound and how they worked with Justin Vernon to design an immersive experience for fans.Before the recent show at New York City’s Forrest Hills stadium as part of the ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’ 10-year anniversary tour, Vernon first tapped L-Acoustics in 2018 to help create a panoramic soundscape of high-resolution audio for a gig at California’s Santa Barbara Bowl.Since then, the band have continued to work with the company – using their L-ISA Hyperreal sound technology – to create a deeper, direct auditory connection with fans.“It’s the 10 year anniversary of our album release, ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’, but it’s also a return after quarantine and COVID lockdown,” Vernon said of focusing on sound on their current tour. “We’ve gotten to be on the ground floor of something new,” he added, noting that “it’s not just two stacks of speakers in a room anymore.”The first time the Wisconsin indie band played their nuanced tracks via the L-ISA high-resolution speaker software, their engineer came up to Vernon after the performance and told him, “That’s the best show you’ve ever played, and it has a lot to do with that sound system.”“Overall, if we were to prioritise what we’re bringing to people out there [it’s] what goes in their ears,” the Bon Iver bandleader said of the importance of their sound quality.