Songfacts®:

• "Au Revoir" is a graceful, atmospheric instrumental that serves as a gentle, introspective outro for Bon Iver's Sable, Fable album. It drifts in on piano and gauzy strings, settling into something that's equal parts farewell note and gentle benediction. On Sable, Fable, it functions as a curtain call, quietly folding together the record's recurring themes of loss, transformation, and letting go.
• The song came about through group improvisation; the entire Bon Iver circle is credited here. That means frontman Justin Vernon, drummer Matt McCaughan, guitarist Andrew Fitzpatrick, multi-instrumentalist Jenn Wasner, pianist Sean Carey, saxophonist Mike Lewis, longtime engineer Chris Messina and co-producer Jim-E Stack all get a songwriter's nod.
• On the surface, "Au Revoir" is a graceful goodbye to an album. But beneath that, some see it marking a personal or creative transition for Justin Vernon. "I'm not going to stand here and say I know what the future holds," he told Uncut magazine. "But when I was putting this record together, it was important to pose the question or give me the key: 'you can peace out. You don't have to do this. In fact you should not keep doing this if it's not what you need."
  
  Vernon said art should come from an honest place, not from the need to be popular. "So that's what 'Au Revoir' is saying: if this is it, this is it. And that's OK."