Kyle Bobby Dunn - A young person's guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn

Kyle Boddy Dunn's music takes you places. If you pay close attention to it, a great variety of sounds will emerge under the surface of sweeping, glacial drones. For fans of Stars of the lid, Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Leyland Kirby and Thomas Köner, this will be a treat. Some have also noted the link to Dirty three's Ocean songs (one of my very favorite albums). It's easy to see the connection with other composers working within the field of modern classical - but this is not to say that Dunn would lack a vision of his own.

Kyle Bobby Dunn hails from New York. I don't think you'll hear that in the music. Listening to the first track of this album consisting of two discs, "Butel", you'll rather think of Greenland than the hip cats of New York. Memories of small ferries & the booming sound of breaking ice intermingle with the open-ended layers of brass/string/guitar drone (but it is hard to trace those original instruments from Dunn's processing work), a sense of menace along with an irresistible surge. "The tributory (for voices lost)" builds up a gorgeously processed soundscape which accomplishes a great deal with a few patches of melody. Dunn's tracks tend to transcend the 8 minute limit, but it's essential here that the compositions are allowed a great deal of time to strech out and leave a mark on your consciousness. CD1 consists of very slow tracks the change of which you hardly notice, but it is there. I am tempted to tread the path of bad weather metaphors: transition: mist/fog/open sky. And why not.

The first track off CD2, "Grab (and in lost legacies)" is barely audible as the low frequency sounds from my speakers blend in with the night sounds from the window; a bird's cry, a hooting car, an insistent cricket, an ambulance, the humming of the wind and the humming of the music. It is very beautiful and the moment is drawn out into eternity. Dunn may make minimal music, but the atmposhere is never that of severe alienation of the kind that dominates the records of some of his peers. There's the outstanding "Empty gazing" that contains a little phrase that is modulated in many directions to create a really big sound, dominated by the beautifully treated brass instruments along with a looming, rumbling sound towards the end, like a train heard from a distance, distorted by heavy wind. CD2 also contains tracks with discernible piano, "Sets of four" being one of them. Suddenly, I think of Library tapes and the haunted, enigmatic sound they have made their signature. Actually, it is those moments I like best (as in the throbbing drone guiding "Nightjar"); where a little ambivalence and dissonance are invited into the otherwise very cohesive picture.

I really recommend this record. Go here and here.