Kyle Bobby Dunn: Rural Route No. 2
Standard Form

After only two installments, Standard Form's Rural Route series is already shaping up to be a special series indeed, with the fine inaugural outing by Damian Valles (also the Rural Route curator) now complemented by an also memorable three-inch chapter by Kyle Bobby Dunn. Having recently dazzled listeners with the double-disc opus A Young Person's Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn (issued on Low Point), Dunn pulls back the reins for a comparatively modest twenty-minute set. In keeping with the general theme of the Rural Route project, Dunn revisited experiences associated with his Albertan childhood and subsequently transmuted his impressions into the disc's two long-form meditations using guitar, strings, radio, and organ as sound-generating materials. “Dissonant Distances” spreads out slowly like a dark cloud formation rolling in from the western lands, with icy clangor speckling the sheets of sound like hail. Listen carefully and you'll hear a tinny singing voice emanating from a radio halfway through the piece, the sole sign of life to be heard amidst the ghostly masses. The comparatively more serene “Senium III” exudes a more symphonic feel as it unfurls long, overlapping layers of silvery tones for twelve languorous minutes. A light haze coats the silken piece, which likens it to past experiences subtly altered when recalled through the refracting prism of memory. The releases by Valles and Dunn give one just cause to look forward with anticipation to the next volumes in the series.

July 2010