One of the most intriguing sets at this year’s Eaux Claires festival may also be one of its most spontaneous.
As previously reported, the National’s Aaron Dessner and electronic music superstar Fred again.. are joining forces tomorrow (July 24) for a first-of-its kind improvised performance at the revived Wisconsin gathering in co-founder Justin Vernon’s Eau Claire, Wi., hometown. In true Eaux Claires fashion, the pair are rehearsing not in a huge recording studio or arena but in a local college auditorium.
For Dessner, the project is a natural extension of a creative relationship that began at his upstate New York Long Pond studio, where he’s tracked hit records with Taylor Swift, Noah Kahan and Gracie Abrams in recent years. Indeed, Abrams will debut at No. 1 today on the Billboard 200 with the Dessner-produced and co-written Daughter from Hell, while Kahan’s The Great Divide has already been certified platinum after just two months of release.
“I’m so honored that Fred would join me in this way,” Dessner tells SPIN of the Eaux Claires set. “As a musician, he’s just so brilliant. He came to work with me at Long Pond on some of the stuff he did with Brian Eno and we made other things which no one has heard. Seeing how we bounced off each other in the moment, like me playing the guitar and him reacting and taking audio and warping it and manipulating it and sequencing it, was just so exciting.”
Dessner says the idea took shape as he and Bon Iver frontman Vernon worked through plans for the first edition in eight years of Eaux Claires, the festival they originally launched as a home for singular collaborations and creative experiments. “You can feel kind of shy asking someone to do something like this,” Dessner says. “But I did hit Fred up and he said, ‘oh my god, I was gonna go anyways. Let’s fucking do this!’”
Dessner sees the performance as a direct reflection of what Eaux Claires is meant to be. “Justin and I started Eaux Claires to have the ability to host things like that,” he explains. “That’s how Bonny Light Horseman started. We just invited Anaïs [Mitchell], Eric [D. Johnson] and Josh [Kaufman] to come make songs together, and that’s what ended up coming out of it. [The Dessner/Vernon project] Big Red Machine is another example. I don’t think Big Red Machine would have existed if we hadn’t had the PEOPLE festival [in Berlin] and Eaux Claires.”
He adds, “Even if it’s something that never happens again, it will be worth it. I’ve learned so much and I think it potentially could lead to many things. I’m really, really happy about it.”
The festival is also undergoing a last-minute lineup shuffle, as singer/songwriter Kevin Morby has dropped off the bill after his partner, Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, gave birth to the couple’s child. In his place, Bon Iver is expected to perform a set of some sort on Friday, which would mark Vernon’s first full live performance since August 2023. Vernon is also assembling a cast of friends onstage under the moniker Bon Dylan for a separate set of Bob Dylan covers.