Kyle Bobby Dunn: "Statuit"

Four albums in and Kyle Bobby Dunn still sounds like he’s been stiffed out of a film score contract. The Brooklynite’s soundscapes are plenty juicy on their own, but mix in a couple of landscape shots and you’d have the entire Cannes Film Festival salivating. Well, Cannes isn’t calling quite yet, so in the meanwhile he’s taken the advice from his LA mentors Moodgadget about “releasing music of a more processed and guitar based nature.” Album number five, Ways of Meaning, has been devised specifically around acoustics and organs. So for those who’ve ever dreamt of seeing him perform in a church, this could be your money-shot moment.

For those who haven’t, here’s “Statuit”: one of only a few pieces on Ways of Meaning where Dunn defaults to ambient tactics. Made out of a single custom synth pad that feels as though it’s being blown rather than played, “Statuit” is a five-minute daydream, but one whose panpipes have been toned down till they sound halfway sensible. If this track was marine life it’d be a bioluminescent fish; one left alone in the warm dark depths, glowing in the hope of a mate. In fact all “Statuit”‘s lacking is some ambient sea effects, though Dunn probably used those up when he wrote it. This is a piece of music to have in your ears when you’re lying on the shore, turning brown, your toes at the edge of the tide. Under no circumstances should British fans attempt this kind of listening. They’ll be peeling off brown seaweed for days.