Hot New Joint: "Cescon" by Kyle Bobby Dunn

Arriving less than a year after his unprecedented triple LP The Infinite Sadness, the gawd Kyle Bobby Dunn has returned with a one off digital single in the form of “Cescon.”

He doesn’t give much in the form of background on the piece, other than it’s an unreleased guitar-based composition recorded in 2011. And arriving at a somewhat brief six minutes and change (given that dude has put together pieces that are double that length) “Cescon” is a rather restrained sounding, incredibly atmospheric and ethereal affair.

Right away I noticed that it was cut from a different cloth in comparison to the pieces that make up The Infinite Sadness. Nothing on that album haunts so quietly and deliberately like “Cescon.” Throughout the running time, very slow moving swirls cascade around you, creating a strange encompassing, reassuring sensation. A piece like this is an excellent example of one of the two schools of ambient and experimental music—there is nothing oppressive, or dread-inducing here; but rather, despite its melancholic nature, creates a commendable sense of comfort.

After repeated listens, I noticed a sense of a familiarity, and I realized that the tone of “Cescon” was incredibly reminiscent of two pieces from Kevin Greenspon’s 2013 LP Betrayed by The Angels—specifically moments of “The Last Good Day” and “Against Words.” This isn’t like a “Won’t Back Down”/”Stay With Me” unintentional similarity situation. I don’t think you can have that in wordless experimental droning music—but just the overall feeling of the pieces were very similar; somber, reflective, thoughtful, deliberate.

While “Cescon” is direct in the feelings it evokes, it’s very indirect as a composition. There’s a layer of murk that keeps the track from rising just above the surface. Dunn is always in control of his pieces—never letting it get away from him, working the ebb and flow flawlessly in his latter day work—but when compared to the stuff from Infinite Sadness, there’s nothing on this song that takes the lead, as it were; he just lets it simply exist for six transcendental minutes.

Kyle Bobby Dunn is one of the few artists that I actually get excited about when they have a new release in the works—Infinite Sadness was one of my most anticipated releases of 2014, and one of my top five records of the year. And despite the castaway nature of a digital single of a track recorded in 2011—this worth your time, worth your ears, and worth your attention for sure.

"Cescon" is available now to download. I would have embedded it, but either the Bandcamp player embed doesn't work in Blogger, or Blogger is just a piece of garbage. So just click here.