Review Summary: Movements for the Completely Fucked
I’ve dealt with depression for most of my life. Music has typically been my sole source of escape. That’s one of the reasons I got into ambient music. It puts me into a sleepy state of mind and I forget about everything else. Eventually this brought me to Kyle Bobby Dunn and the Infinite Sadness. Despite being far less known than the likes of Brian Eno, Stars of the Lid, or William Basinski, Kyle Bobby Dunn is among the finest ambient artists of all time. He's no stranger to lengthy releases and Infinite Sadness is no exception, clocking in at over 2 hours. His prior full length, Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn, was another 2 hour epic. Infinite Sadness, largely built on heavily processed guitar drones, has more variation and is slightly less subdued than Bring Me the Head, but it's still pure ambient bliss. Despite its length and due to the nature of the material, you can get lost in this album and its runtime can pass by surprisingly quick.
At first glance, Kyle Bobby Dunn immediately draws comparison to Stars of the Lid. Most of the tracks here are reminiscent of the more ambient side of Stars of the Lid, like Avec Laudenum or much of Tired Sounds. Kyle Bobby Dunn’s music is much bleaker however. The album is aptly titled. If Stars of the Lid is like a dream, this album is a thousand-yard stare. It’s the calm after the storm. The aftermath of something traumatic. If I had to describe the overall tone of this album, I'd say it's grief and loneliness in sonic form. It takes those feelings and perfectly portrays them, not unlike how The Caretaker’s Everywhere at the End of Time portrays the horrors of Alzheimer’s.
It's not all gloom and doom however. There's a subtle silliness to some of the song titles like Boring Foothills of Foot Fetishville and Variation on a Theme by St-Dipshit. My personal favorites would be Saison Triste on Lac of Baies, Mon Retard, and Those Satisfactions are Permanent. Despite its minimalistic nature, the songs do evolve over the course of their duration. They meander rather than just simply linger. There's variation, but the overall theme and feeling is the same. Despite being peaceful, there's an overwhelming sense of sadness permeating throughout. Whenever I listen to Infinite Sadness, I get an undeniable sense of longing. It could be for the warmth of a certain person or a reflection on memories of days long since passed. This is the type of music that could be put on as background music, but you'd miss out on the feelings it conjures up. It’s meant for contemplation and would be perfect for a midnight drive alone.
If you're someone that's dealing with loss or feel isolated, I highly recommend giving this a try. It can be a cathartic experience. By the time the final song plays, there's a sense of contentment, an acceptance of circumstance. For just a moment, there's peace, even if everything’s not ok. This is the soundtrack for those of us starving for connection in an increasingly impersonal world. A hymn for the heartbroken and the hopeless. May there be no more blue tomorrows.
