In Kyle Bobby Dunn’s latest, mystery is essential

Kyle Bobby Dunn – Ways of Meaning (Desire Path)

As much as it pains me to do so when a record contains songs with titles like “Throwing Sandwiches into the Lake” and “Movement for the Completely Fucked,” I’m going to begin here by talking about “Canyon Meadows.” Surface-level disappointment at its un-flashy title aside, the third and second-longest track on Kyle Bobby Dunn’s new release Ways of Meaning is the most mind-alteringly great piece on a record full of them.

It tiptoes in almost fully formed. Soothing low tones hum underneath, suggesting something grand and sweeping, surrounding you on all sides. Mid tones undulate comfortably with an almost metallic quality. They’re sleek and lithe, making you feel as if you’re moving through whatever it is that’s all around. Above it all horn-like noises reach for heaven, wavering in softly, but carrying themselves on top of the mix in a way that has more the effect of brassy blasts. It’s mostly just guitar and keyboard, but it might as well be the New York Philharmonic for how robust and fully formed it sounds. It’s exquisitely titled. You can easily place bright light on canyon walls and a river pushing its way through the green plains in between inside the soundscape. Indeed, it communicates effortlessly, but it’s something wholly unintelligible that sets the song — and the rest of Ways — apart from most any other music I’ve heard.

• Kyle Bobby Dunn – “Canyon Meadows”

There’s something almost otherworldly or supernatural about the effect Dunn’s sounds have on me. There’s a timelessness in their cadence, a serenity that’s both unfathomable and intimidating. I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt as at peace with myself as the compositions here seem to be. They’re the musical embodiment of an incredible calm, one that brings me part way into its bliss, but also suggests a nirvana that’s beyond my comprehension.

It would be less striking to me if this record only found this transcendence through the joy displayed on “Canyon Meadows.” But other tracks here douse themselves in melancholy tones. “Movement for the Completely Fucked” is an entrancing, slow-moving swirl of ringing ethereal tones with a peacefully downtrodden demeanor. Their noise grows louder, cementing the feeling of the song with sorrowful resignation. It’s like the pain of losing a loved one who is much better off, now that their sickness is over. It’s a resignation so complete that it seems wholly beyond the capacity of a selfish human mind to attain.

Dunn’s Ways of Meaning come off as perfectly formed feelings, emotions drawn out and concentrated to their most singular form. It’s got something to do with his wondrous minimalism, the way he contrasts tones so skillfully and leaves them bare and quivering in the middle of spacious silences. But there’s more than that affecting me here. In some ways it reminds me of the tones used for aliens in the movies. Not the scary ones or the B-movie ones, but the highly evolved and advanced creatures of Cocoon or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In these movies and others the aliens’ interactions with humans are accompanied by similar (and inferior) noise. It gives you the impression that these beings are more advanced than you can imagine without demanding that you imagine it.

I’ve never understood why sounds like these work quite this way, and I really don’t want to. Part of the power in Dunn’s work is its mystery. There’s some mental cue hidden in the intonation or tenor of his creations that fills me with awe, and if I completely understood it. It would ruin the effect entirely. So I’m just going to listen to it again and try not to think about it.

I suggest you do the same.