The tenth sigma release is by Rosy Parlane and comes four years after the inaugural sigma, 001: Parlane's #1-4.
With this new work, entitled Getxo, the Parlane sensibility is recognizable: an interest in sublimity, minor keys and mesmerizing repetition. Track one, for example, with its simple repeated four note phrase, is like melancholy carnival music devoid of sentimentality. The repetition in this track mimics mechanical reproduction in that the quality degenerates over the course of the track, ending in an enveloping, ever stronger fuzz.
In comparison to #1-4, Getxo is lighter, looser, takes itself less seriously. However, at the same time its tracks are more varied, intricate, difficult and internally more complex, moving between density and thinness. The relationship between the six tracks is also more complex, with the tracks existing as pairs (1 & 6, 2 & 5, 3 & 4) in terms of structure, source material and method.
Since making #1-4 Parlane has shifted from relatively lo-fi techniques of construction to the digital realm of computer music and this shift in technology is reflected in the intricacy of the tracks and the quality of the sounds. #1-4's dark and urgent rumblings have been superceded by crispness and clarity.
Getxo is part of the evolved and evolving Parlane aesthetic, very knowledgeable, drawing on a wide range of influences, and innately musical, seductive and affecting, full of quiet and not so quiet catches and hooks, so easy that the difficulty is camoflagued.
- Anna Sanderson / Adrian Leverkühn, 2002
