Rosy Parlane 'Jessamine' album

Rosy Parlane [NZ]'s previous album for Touch, 'Iris' [2004] was hailed as a masterpiece by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers guitarist, John Frusciante, who wrote: "...it's such an incredible, beautiful energy inside of it that to me, it sounds like listening to a great pop record or a great rock record or a great classical record or whatever." Jim Haynes in The Wire wrote: "Jon Wozencroft's impeccable photography and design packages Rosy Parlane's 'Iris' inside a predominantly blue package, inextricably linking the music to the emotional resonance of the colour... He flushes his soundfields with cascades of digital fragments which he separates into two distinct compositional categories. On the one hand, Parlane stretches sounds from guitar, piano and organ into unrecognisable drones that swell into dense layerings, every once in a while coalescing into fluttering half-melodies. On the other, he emphasises the textural qualities of those digital fragments, simulating the natural acoustics of ice crackling from trees in winter or the gentle patter of rain on a windowsill. When fusing these together by placing the textures against the backdrop of the drone, Parlane effectively builds pointillist sound environments with a profoundly human melancholia."

With 'Jessamine', Rosy develops these themes, and continues to incorporate new musical elements from unconventional as well as orchestral instrumentation. To him, everything is an instrument: from household objects to nature sounds, thus placing him firmly at the centre of the avant-garde. But it is the human element, as with all Touch artists, which gives his work such a distinctive sound. Ranging from ambient to noise, he gives full rein to textures of living; to start, languid and mournful; later harsh and assertive.

'Jessamine' is a magnificent follow-up to a classic Touch debut.
Written & Recorded in Auckland, NZ August 2004 - August 2006
Rosy Parlane: electric and acoustic guitars, piano, melodica, accordion, violin, trombone, snare drum, shimsaw, amplified sawblade, bowed metal, household objects, contact microphones, field recordings, radio, computer
Marcel Bear: shimsaw on Part 1
Tetuzi Akiyama: resonator guitar with samurai sword and contact microphones on Part 2
Individual guitar contributions on Part 3 by Lasse Marhaug, Anthony Guerra, Michael Morley, Donald McPherson, Matthew Hyland, David Mitchell, Stefan Neville, Campbell Kneale
Shimsaws and amplified sawblade designed and built by Marcel Bear

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Rosy Parlane - Jessamine