Kyle Bobby Dunn
Kyle Bobby Dunn | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kyle Robert Dunn |
| Also known as |
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| Born | February 27, 1986 |
| Origin | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels |
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| Website | kylebobbydunn |
Kyle Bobby Dunn (born February 27, 1986 in Ontario) is a Canadian composer, arranger, and live performer of modern compositional and guitar based drone music. He has performed in live and exclusive outdoor settings, including Banff National Park, since 2000 and has released music on various international recording labels.[1][2][3]
His work has been described as "compositions that are patience incarnate"[4] and "encourage an emotional response even as its seemingly infinite, creeping swirl and hum threatens to numb. A difficult feat."[5] It is music that often "captures a mood somewhere between sadness and strength; it's the sound of a respite that occurs after having survived an ordeal; it's sound as memory, as memorial."[6]
The austere, tempered tonal shifts featured in many of his compositions subtly echo the work of minimalist forerunners like Morton Feldman and LaMonte Young. At the same time Dunn occasionally intersperses quaint, almost chamberal touches which evoke more traditionally classical sources.[7]
Background & Musical History
First realized in Calgary, Alberta, Dunn started composing and arranging his music for homemade films mostly on piano and cassette tapes (audio and video) in the late 1990s. His first love was filmmaking and it was film music that initially attracted him to composing his own works. He began performing and recording under the names 'Subtract by Two' and Kyle Bobby Dunn with the first self-released album, Music for Medication around 2002–2003.
In interviews he has often mentioned large admiration for classical and soundtrack composers including Arvo Pärt, Valentin Silvestrov, John Williams, Ennio Morricone and Jerry Fielding,[8] yet his own music often exhibits a more quiet, minimalist, and droning nature that is often compared to ambient contemporary musicians William Basinski, Brian Eno and Stars of the Lid.
Releasing what he has referred to as his 'first proper full length' album, Fragments & Compositions of Kyle Bobby Dunn, on Boston's Sedimental label in 2008. The album covered several years of his earliest compositional works, mainly for strings and piano.
In early 2010, a long form album that filled a double compact disc set containing five years worth of his music, A Young Person's Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn, arrived on the UK based label Low Point, and was praised in various music journalism and considered a 'deeply affecting' work by The New York Times.
He released Ways of Meaning in 2011 on Buffalo, New York imprint, Desire Path Recordings, to unanimously positive reception. The Huffington Post's Daniel Kushner wrote, "Dunn presents the listener with sounds that seemingly, have no beginning, nor any end. There are not so much melodies, in the conventional sense – but rather an economical assemblage of tones, which linger in the air like the quivering brush strokes in an Impressionist still life."[9]
In 2012 he released another double disc set of long form works on the Low Point label. Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn was recorded at the artist's Bunce Cake studio and throughout remote locations in his native Canada. The recordings revealed a most personal and deeply emotional aspect of the composer's work and reached a high standard for electronically produced and arranged music – only utilizing an electric guitar and loop pedal for the album's 15 songs. The disc received a largely positive response and was heralded by Resident Advisor as being among his finest work.
In addition to the massive double disc release of 2012, a five song vinyl record was released later in the year on the Toronto label, Komino. It was considered as "a tightening of the composer's sound – the signature elements are there; cyclical patterns, drifts of spidery drones, buried static, but though they somehow seem slower and more stately than before, they seem focused, resolute" and "in a quiet master class in poised composition; constantly in motion, and in perfect stillness" by John Boursnell at UK's Fluid Radio.
In mid 2014 his released his largest full-length release album to date, 'Kyle Bobby Dunn & The Infinite Sadness.' The album is artist's largest and most emotionally complex release with many of the previous guitar laden sounds of previous releases stretched out to long crescendos and intricate melodic development. The release is available on the triple vinyl and double compact disc formats.
Controversies
On July 3 2019, Indianapolis, Indiana-based Past Inside the Present ended their working relationship with Dunn, stating "We have been made aware of disparaging and hateful comments by Kyle Dunn, an artist on PITP. We have spoken with him and every artist on our roster to clarify that we do not stand by this type of behavior. PITP will no longer be working with him." [10]
July 5 2019 saw two labels sever relations with Dunn. The first being Cincinnati, Ohio-based label Whited Sepulchre Records, stating: "Over this last week we learned some truly disturbing truths regarding Kyle Bobby Dunn. WSR has removed his record from our bandcamp and website. We stand with the victims of his gender-based harassment and personal attacks." [11]
This was followed the same day by Nottingham, UK-based label Low Point, who stated: "Low Point have also removed the remaining KBD LPs from sale." [12]
Discography
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- Collaborations
- PERILS – PERILS (Kyle Bobby Dunn and Benoît Pioulard), (vinyl/digital 2015, Desire Path Recordings)
- The Searchers / Voyevoda (Ltd. Vinyl LP Split with Wayne Robert Thomas 2018, Whited Sepulchre)
See also
References
- ^ "New York Times, Steve Smith". Archived from the original on December 31, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
- ^ Allmusic, Ned Raggett.All Music review
- ^ Pitchfork.Pitchfork Review Archived June 22, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Pitchfork Review on Fervency (2009)Pitchfork Review: "Fervency" Archived September 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Just Press Play Review on Kyle Bobby Dunn (2010)JustPressPlay Review: "A Young Person's Guide"
- ^ Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn Review (2012)The Fanzine Review: Bring Me the Head Archived December 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Mark Lesseraux, DOA Review of Young Person's Guide DOA Review by Mark Lesseraux Archived June 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Future Sequence Interview with Kyle Bobby Dunn". Archived from the original on September 8, 2010. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
- ^ "Huffington Post Review". Archived from the original on September 6, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
- ^ Past Inside The Present(2019)"
- ^ Whited Sepulchre Records(2019)"
- ^ Gareth Hardwick / Low Point (2019)"
External links
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| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
- 1986 births
- Living people
- Experimental composers
- Canadian classical composers
- Canadian contemporary artists
- Musicians from Calgary
- American experimental musicians
- Canadian electronic musicians
- Ambient musicians
- Musicians from Ontario
- Canadian conceptual artists
- 21st-century classical composers
- Contemporary classical music performers
- Minimalist composers
- Postminimalist composers
- Postmodern composers
- Canadian digital artists
- Canadian male classical composers
- 20th-century American composers
- 21st-century American composers
- 20th-century Canadian composers
- 21st-century Canadian composers
- 20th-century American male musicians
- 21st-century American male musicians