4) Bring Me the Head Of... - Kyle Bobby Dunn (TOP 20 OF 2012)

Bring Me the Head Of Kyle Bobby Dunn

Kyle Bobby Dunn

Low-Point Records.

Original SCQ Review.

Kyle Bobby Dunn has been building toward due recognition for a while now. The rural Ontario-via-Brooklyn composer’s capacity to transmit beauty from the most transient points of tonal elegance has always elbowed itself a spot within SCQ’s listening habits but, this year, his efforts became unavoidable. Alongside November’s bare and lovely In Miserum Stercus, Bring Me the Head Of Kyle Bobby Dunn finds the minimalist achieving some of his finest work yet.

In all likelihood, we’ve acclimatized to his trajectory a hell of a lot more than Dunn’s bent any rules to our favour. But it's a dynamic that's paying off for both parties. After all, this is music to internalize and learn from; it wouldn’t make any sense for Dunn to cater his gorgeous ambience toward any tangible scene when he occupies such a minimalist throne. Blessed and cursed are those who let this record of pure sadness soundtrack their lives this year.

In Miserum Stercus - Kyle Bobby Dunn

In Miserum Stercus

Kyle Bobby Dunn

Komino Records.

SCQ Rating: 78%

In light of his signature minimalist sound (something I attempted to describe earlier this year in SCQ's review of Bring Me the Head of…), it comes as little surprise that critical discourse tends to focus squarely on Kyle Bobby Dunn’s spaciousness. And while it’s true that at least two of the Canadian composer’s albums have breached the one hundred minute mark, Dunn has also been generous in unveiling records of less imposing run-times. The latest, In Miserum Stercus, runs a lean 35 minutes – which is all well and good – but best of luck assessing these soundscapes on the merits of size.

For one thing, In Miserum Stercus doesn’t feel 35 minutes long, bleeding out pure yet emotionally varied tones over a standstill that could easily be mistimed by twice as many minutes. So while yes it can score a reasonable morning commute with room to spare, its scope promises to go on and on. Dunn’s range, one endlessly rolling horizon, wasn’t always this smooth – 2011’s Ways Of Meaning presented textural shifts abrupt by comparison – but In Miserum Stercus proves a sterling companion to Dunn’s aforementioned 2012 double-album because both present yearning loops that could unspool into eons of real-time attachment.

At the risk of encouraging a ‘less is more’ attitude with regards to a catalog I personally enjoy sprawling and impenetrable, Dunn’s work irresistibly shines on an intimate, 35-minute platter. The nostalgic high watermark “Meadowfuck” and pensive slow-burner “Lake Wapta Rise” orient the record’s space economically or, in other words, allows the listener to navigate In Miserum Stercus’ flow at a quicker pace. And digestibility is an especially important attribute when the record in question collects some of Dunn’s most airy offerings to date. “Buncington Revisited”, in some ways classic Kyle Bobby Dunn, transforms unnoticed from mournful gloom into something entirely different and unsettling, while “The Milksop” wastes no time soaring on a wash of overlapping classical smears. Yet another worthy addition to a seriously underrated discography, In Miserum Stercus quixotically showcases Dunn at his most linear and esoteric.

Bring Me the Head Of Kyle Bobby Dunn - Kyle Bobby Dunn

Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn

Kyle Bobby Dunn

Low Point Records.

SCQ Rating: 81%

Few catalogs in the ambient genre prove as bizarre and beguiling as Kyle Bobby Dunn’s. Intensely personal – enough so that Dunn’s name features into his album titles with the same proclivity as Weezer dedicating records to Crayola colours – and unerringly shapeless, it’s the traits that some might view as hindrances that give Dunn’s post-classical soundscapes their memorable hue. It helps that he’s also quite prolific. Since being introduced with A Young Person’s Guide To… in the winter of 2010, shortly after I moved to snowy Ottawa, my iTunes has grown to contain no less than five hours of subsequent Kyle Bobby Dunn material. And that’s not even all of it.

Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn finds the Brooklyn-based artist transitioning again, away from last spring’s concise Ways Of Meaning LP and into the long-form, double-record ambitions of yore. Which brings me to Dunn’s other noteworthy trademark – his uniformity. With so many releases spawned from a minimalist’s palette, it’s a testament to his blurred compositions that Bring Me the Head Of… maintains the fresh feel of what is ultimately another tribute to solitude. With instrumentation that sounds more comparable to streetlights at dusk, quiet sidewalks and hazy memories than guitar, strings or other tools designed to emanate sound, “The Hungover” and “La Chanson de Beurrage” lurch gracefully in circles that usher an emotional resonance to surface. Other tracks make their impact quicker: “An Evening With Dusty” presents a nostalgic drone-piece while “Diamond Cove (And Its Children Were Watching)” cuts directly to the gooey center of a climax without forsaking its atmosphere. Like all of Dunn’s releases, however, the best tracks unveil themselves slowly over multiple listens, and appeal on the grounds of personal sensitivities rather than any tangible, melodic qualities. It’s why “Douglas Glen Theme” floors me and I can’t properly explain why.

Over the past two years, Kyle Bobby Dunn has indeed become one of my favourite ambient artists, even when acknowledging that his releases don’t arouse a level of excitement that befits the occasion. Listening intently to these transient drones doesn’t have nearly the effect as trying to ignore them does, as if Dunn’s insisting that we absorb these tonal landscapes into our personal lives with the same casualness by which he seemingly accumulated them. As such, it’s impossible for me to hear Bring Me the Head Of… without reflecting on my impending move from Ottawa and all of the memories I can link to Dunn’s evocative output during my time here. Bearing the same faultless uniformity as before, Bring Me the Head Of… defies any ranking amidst Dunn’s discography. Instead, I can only promise that it’s as potent, inspiring and cryptic as the others.

3.) SMM: Context - Various (Top 20 Albums of 2011)

SMM: Context

Various

Ghostly International

Original SCQ Review.

The very first compilation to land on SCQ’s Top Twenty of any given year fell into my hands purely by luck. The gifted composer Kyle Bobby Dunn, who released the gorgeously understated Ways Of Meaning in March, introduced me to the project headed up by Jeff Owens of Ghostly International, but I had no idea the effect it would have on my coming year.

When a longstanding streak of writer’s block ended this Spring and I began writing poetry again, SMM: Context extended its post-review shelf-life by worming its way into the background of those daily sessions. My gravitating towards the compilation began with Dunn’s ‘Runge’s Last Stand’, then expanded to Goldmund’s ‘Motion’ and Peter Broderick’s ‘Pause’ and Jacaszek’s ‘Elegia’. Overplaying those favourites always led to the accidental spins of surrounding tracks – like Manual’s ‘Three Parts’ and Rafael Anton Irisarri’s ‘Moments Descend On My Windowpane’ – which soon became irresistible mood pieces as well.

As seasons changed and my habit birthed the beginnings of a full-on manuscript, SMM: Context grew from a reliable tapestry of ambience, post-classical and electro-acoustic soundscapes into a one-of-a-kind project that saw each subgenre absorbed seamlessly into a greater whole. Despite the talent attached to SMM: Context, the roster never outshines the material submitted. Ghostly International completely outdid itself in 2011 and as if the plethora of excellent records they released of late weren’t proof enough, my anticipation for a second helping of SMM: Context – a compliation, for god’s sake – should say it all.  

Ways Of Meaning - Kyle Bobby Dunn (Spring Albums 2011)

Ways Of Meaning

Kyle Bobby Dunn
Desire Path Recordings.


SCQ Rating: 83%

Little about Kyle Bobby Dunn’s new album explicitly suggests spring listening although, really, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything explicit in the minimalist composer’s tonal exercises. Bearing an ambiguous sense of beauty quite capable of scoring fall or winter with nearly the same resonance, Ways Of Meaning fits the spring season best because it represents a sort of clean slate. The heart of Dunn’s style hasn’t changed – those sterile yet emotional sound-waves remain lovingly intact – but his modus operandi feels renewed, his approach further refined.

Spanning six tracks and forty minutes, Ways Of Meaning marks Dunn’s gentle transition from airy sound-environments to precise ambient pieces. Curtailing the length of his compositions by about half, Dunn has taken a risk; after all, part of A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn’s allure was getting lost in twenty-minute slabs of undulating mood. Ways Of Meaning still offers that escape from discernable structure with the fifteen-minute ‘Movement For the Completely Fucked’ but the rest of these tracks (most between five and six minutes in length) dive straight into the emotional complexity of Dunn’s temperament. These highlights are better described in moods than instrumental dissection; from the resolute glory of ‘Canyon Meadows’ to the stifled uncertainty of ‘Touhy’s Theme’, Dunn showcases his knack for warm tones with an immediacy that’s borderline addictive.

Whether smitten by the soothing cascade of ‘Dropping Sandwiches In Chester Lake’ or the nostalgic atmospheres of ‘Statuit’ (which sort of recall The Cure’s ‘Funeral Party’, no?), listeners will come to recognize this as the most accessible release of Dunn’s young career. Still straddling the blurred line between post-classical and ambient, ignorable yet listenable, Ways Of Meaning is both purposeful and voraciously consumable.

Rural Route No. 2 - Kyle Bobby Dunn (Rural Route Series)

Rural Route No.2

Kyle Bobby Dunn
Standard Form Records.

SCQ Rating: 78%

As someone who’d never heard of Kyle Bobby Dunn before 2010, I had the great fortune to discover the composer’s work through A Young Person’s Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn, a double LP that collected Fervency (a 2009 Moodgadget release) with over sixty minutes of unreleased tracks from those same sessions. And yes, I’m aware that by describing Dunn as a composer, I’m putting him in league with some of ambient’s finest tightrope-walkers, like Stars Of the Lid or Brian Eno. I’m comfortable with that, as Rural Route No.2 handily pushes Dunn’s two sonic poles – noise-laced urgency and pristine calm - to new levels of emotional richness.

That may seem like a feat for a release that clocks barely twenty minutes in all, but Dunn has never let limitations diminish his reach. He’s a minimalist, after all, and although both tracks here wander a static purgatory, we listeners receive occasional channels that direct us through Dunn’s devious narrative. If not for the EP’s actual narrative - that of Dunn’s return to a childhood home and all of the pale memories it recalls – first track ‘Dissonant Distances’ could’ve made an excellent title to these faraway recollections. Bathed in soft, industrial tones and at one point honing in on what sounds like a nostalgic radio signal, ‘Dissonant Distances’ would feel sterile if not for its emotional crests. That same ebb and flow runs through ‘Senium III’, only less obstructed by conflicted memories and more at ease with the ghostly beauty of nostalgia.

Overdue to take a Greyhound bus to my own hometown, I let Rural Route No. 2 accompany me when my passenger-seat caught the first of Toronto’s smog-riddled skyline. And in the way these two longform tracks expand then curl, speak up and then cut themselves off, I remembered the city in a scattershot of half-memories that showcase, with impassive precision, how it felt to live there. ‘Senium III’ has that rare ability to beckon buried thoughts and merit them with the appropriate significance. Like nostalgia itself, it's a wonderful place to wallow so long as you don’t live there.

(This review was originally published on Skeleton Crew Quarterly in August 2010.)

Kyle Bobby Dunn (SCQ's Year-End Questionnaire (Part III)

Had I not heard of Kyle Bobby Dunn when his compilation A Young Person’s Guide To… was introduced last winter, I no doubt would’ve several dozen times since. Not only has the ambient composer already followed up that double-release with an entry in Standard Form’s Rural Route series, he’s also just released the cassette Pour Les Octaves. Keeping in stride, Dunn set aside some time to discuss 2010 in all its accomplishments and disappointments. (Photo by Nicholas Zieg Owens.)

SCQ: Every list-lover's favourite question: what are your top albums of 2010? Feel free to include any older yet worthy records you discovered this year.

KBD: I was rather disappointed overall in 2010. Maybe it's just a sign of the times, but the new music released this year was just really insufferable. Actually the new Beach House was okay. I think one of the best things i heard all year and have still listened to quite a lot is the new infinite body album, "carve out the face of my god." I was into some of the new Ariel Pink album for a second. But, best release must be the new Arvo Pärt recording on ECM, 'Symphony No. 4, Los Angeles' which I think is due out officially tomorrow.

But most of this year was dipped in re-discovering and lathering myself in older recordings and soundtrack music from long ago and that reminded me of childhood and old times.

SCQ: What were you listening to a lot of while recording your excellent compilation A Young Person's Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn? And did you dive into any nostalgic listening while recording the ode-to-home Rural Route No. 2?

KBD: Well that was years ago, for the most part. I think at the time it was a lot of Morton Feldman, Stuart Dempster, Oren Ambarchi's Grapes from the Estate, William Basinski, Sun Kil Moon/Red House Painters, Bach, Chopin... The Rural Route was recorded a few years back as well, 2006... while in Calgary I was surrounded by a lot of 80's rock radio but I did do some nostalgic listening to old recordings I remembered from my childhood in Calgary, like Arvo Pärt, Valentin Silvestrov, Ligeti, Komeda, Penderecki, Wagner, Satie ...

SCQ: Be cocky for once in your life: what was the finest thing you did all year? That moment where you actually thought "shit, I nailed that..."?

KBD: It's been a pretty sad year to be honest. I am looking forward to this performance coming up this week at the First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn Heights, near my place - as it's the first time I am performing in a grand 19th century cathedral and with a sizable string and horn section. I hope I can nail it. Other than that I am fortunate I got so much good cheese and food in the old loin this year.


(Editorial Note: Kyle was kind enough to send a picture taken at the performance. Photo snapped by Derek Morton.)

SCQ: Effect and Cause: My initial listens to your double-album occurred just past midnight, as it accompanied me on walks to meet my girlfriend after her evening shifts. That listening happenstance soon became tradition and your work now regularly breathes over midnight wanderings. Okay, your turn: confess a true tale that inspired one of the songs from A Young Person's Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn.

KBD: That's interesting - a lot of midnight wanderings occurred for me while writing and piecing it together. And wanderings in general actually. Each piece has a lot to do with afterthought and it's probably obvious in the song names and moods. I remember arriving in Alberta in 2006 to see my cousin and his girlfriend whom I'd not seen in years. We drove out to Kananaskis country one late summer's eve and walked and squandered among an old tributary and picnic area. We ran into some very serious quiet moments and thus arose the inspiration for The Tributary movement. I mean all are very personal and a bit self-involved. Butel is about a sexy vegan ex-girlfriend...

SCQ: If all the reasonable and implausible ideas in your head came to fruition in 2011, what would they be?

KBD: Being a bit more open, comfortable (in different ways), and taking things a bit more slowly and at ease. I've become really paranoid and confused this past year, and I hope that goes away.

Rural Route No. 2 - Kyle Bobby Dunn

Rural Route No.2

Kyle Bobby Dunn
Standard Form Records.

SCQ Rating: 78%

As someone who’d never heard of Kyle Bobby Dunn before 2010, I had the great fortune to discover the composer’s work through A Young Person’s Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn, a double LP that collected Fervency (a 2009 Moodgadget release) with over sixty minutes of unreleased tracks from those same sessions. And yes, I’m aware that by describing Dunn as a composer, I’m putting him in league with some of ambient’s finest tightrope-walkers, like Stars Of the Lid or Brian Eno. I’m comfortable with that, as Rural Route No.2 handily pushes Dunn’s two sonic poles – noise-laced urgency and pristine calm - to new levels of emotional richness.

That may seem like a feat for a release that clocks barely twenty minutes in all, but Dunn has never let limitations diminish his reach. He’s a minimalist, after all, and although both tracks here wander a static purgatory, we listeners receive occasional channels that direct us through Dunn’s devious narrative. If not for the EP’s actual narrative - that of Dunn’s return to a childhood home and all of the pale memories it recalls – first track ‘Dissonant Distances’ could’ve made an excellent title to these faraway recollections. Bathed in soft, industrial tones and at one point honing in on what sounds like a nostalgic radio signal, ‘Dissonant Distances’ would feel sterile if not for its emotional crests. That same ebb and flow runs through ‘Senium III’, only less obstructed by conflicted memories and more at ease with the ghostly beauty of nostalgia.

Overdue to take a Greyhound bus to my own hometown, I let Rural Route No. 2 accompany me when my passenger-seat caught the first of Toronto’s smog-riddled skyline. And in the way these two longform tracks expand then curl, speak up and then cut themselves off, I remembered the city in a scattershot of half-memories that showcase, with impassive precision, how it felt to live there. ‘Senium III’ has that rare ability to beckon buried thoughts and merit them with the appropriate significance. Like nostalgia itself, it's a wonderful place to wallow so long as you don’t live there.

A Young Person's Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn - Kyle Bobby Dunn

A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn

Kyle Bobby Dunn
Low Point Records.

SCQ Rating: 80%

Oh, what navel-gazing, hopeless romantics we ambient music fans are. Always finding cinematic qualities from the everyday and poignant memories within delicate notes, we’re the types destined to languish in armchairs between drawn-out drones and street-car seats overlooking tonal hues. Agents of immobility, daydreamers with good intentions. Yet in spite of our demeanor – us ambient children are pretty docile – the overabundance of composers in the genre often tempts us to bite the hand that feeds. Since the birth of Muzak Inc. in the 1950s, the notion of background music has divided into several overarching sects and, of these divisions (field-recordings, laptop-based, ambient-techno, new age, etc.), finding an album tagged with your personal slice of ambience, the form you love and admire, can be surprisingly difficult.

A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn is not only a collection that amasses Dunn’s 2009 effort Fervency with an additional record’s worth from those sessions; it’s a beginner’s guide to all that’s untarnished and genuine about the ambient that Brian Eno philosophized in 1978, that Stars Of the Lid have carried so vigilantly into the twenty-first century. How Kyle Bobby Dunn, a young person himself, learned to measure these orchestral undercurrents with a majesty worthy of such contemporaries is beyond me, yet there’s undeniable wisdom at work throughout this near two-hour set. From the complacent urgency throbbing at the fringes of ‘Promenade’ to the light-beam swimming-pool of ‘There Is No End To Your Beauty’, A Young Person’s Guide To… coats its atmospheres to the corners of rooms and the horizons of one’s travels… which is to say, the sole talent ambient music has always boasted freely about: the ability to paint our everyday perspective with surrealist tones. Tracks like ‘Nightjar’, which stealthily harbours minor-key shadows, and the refined hope of ‘The Tributary (For Voices Lost) handily accomplish this expectation without leading its listener through pre-planned moods. Not only does this uncalculated approach to ambient music score points as an objective emotional soundtrack, it allows us to work this record in, like a pair of new sneakers, on our own terms.

A no-brainer for any ambient-loving, anxiety-addled or daydream-prone music-lover, A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn gathers a sound seemingly borne of particles, closer in kinship to concrete hums and melting frost than the sighing drones, feather-light keys and distant brass that assemble these compositions. It functions as mood-music, sure, but these tracks quietly transgress their origin-points, ushering in the uneasy (as on the nightmarish close of ‘Butel’) as well as the elegiac (on ‘Sets Of Four’’s lone piano). An essential companion for time spent alone.