| Artist: Kyle Bobby Dunn Album: A Young Person's Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn Released: 18 January 2010 |   |
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At first listen the music of Kyle Bobby Dunn seems like that of many other drone artists, but upon closer examination we find him to be realizing a distinctive, ever changing body of work. His 3" CD Rural Route No. 2 presents two 10 minute tracks, each moving through contrasting moody realms. The full-length album Music for Medication does this as well, and also pushes Dunn's minimal music to a plateau of amplitude and density. To say that Dunn's music, especially on A Young Person's Guide to Bobby Kyle Dunn, has been made in the shadow of the classic "An Index of Metals" would be oversimplifying a complicated web of artistic influences. The music shimmers with a kind of strange electricity as Dunn achieves a wealth of dramatic potency and musical color on every track. With its trembling textures and subtle gradations and variations of tone and timbre this music is given the space to open up into a myriad of sustaining atmospheres. Every sonic swell leads a double life, as part of the soundfield and as a thing in itself - a round tone rolling through reverb. From eloquent reflection and pastoral imagery to a cold midnight wind each piece is an intimate affair. Deep listening results in the loss of self - and while it is a fascinating pastime to contemplate the way Dunn's music is produced (whether with a guitar, feedback loops, digital manipulations or string ensemble) time is much better spent absorbing the slowly breathing dronescapes and examining the interior condition his pieces evoke.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 16 December 2010 | |
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