Darla Records

Spread across two cds with a total running time of nearly two hours, A Young Person’s Guide To… is a stunning collection of recordings from New York based minimalist composer and sound artist Kyle Bobby Dunn.

Four tracks on the first disc originally appeared as the download only album Fervency, released by the Moodgadget label in 2009. Impressed by Dunn’s sensitive and world-wise compositions, it was felt that the music deserved to be released on a physical format and expanded upon with a second disc containing an additional 60 minutes of music gathered from the same period as the Fervency recordings.

Utilising an instrumental palette of guitar, strings and brass, often played by classically trained musicians drafted in on the spur of the moment, the sounds of these sessions were recorded as Dunn dictated and then reworked via computer processing into spine-tingling soundscapes.

Dunn's compositions here are fully rich in timbre, painterly, hopelessly romantic and haunting; balanced between a wash of pure sound and an ornate yet subtle dance of classical instrumentation. Occupying a truly cinematic scope, these pieces can transport the listener from the deepest and most forgotten landscapes to the furthest recesses of time.

Disc 1:
1. Butel
2. The Tributary (For Voices Lost)
3. There Is No End To Your Beauty
4. Promenade
5. Small Show of Hands

Disc 2:
1. Grab (And Its Lost Legacies)
2. Empty Gazing
3. Last Minute Jest
4. The Second Ponderosa
5. Bonavenuture's Finest Hour
6. Sets of Four (Its Meaning Is Deeper Than Its Title Implies)
7. The Nightjar