Perlah & Sta Dormida's 'Parachute / This Light' Is Two Songs, Fifty Copies and All the Room in the World
Fifty copies. A 7” lathe cut, co-released by Motion Ward and blush, gone almost as soon as it appeared. Two tracks: “parachute” at 4:08 and “this light” at 3:12. That is the entire object, and it is enough.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Written and recorded by the two artists themselves — Iris Camargo, who records as Sta Dormida, and Gustav Kemps, whose slowcore side project is Perlah — with no producer and no outside studio in the credits. Glenn Donaldson, the songwriter behind The Reds, Pinks & Purples, described the palette precisely: “It’s mostly sparse guitar/bass/drums with gentle vocals.” The restraint is the arrangement. Nothing is competing for the floor.
The Spatial Dynamics: Ike Zwanikken mastered it, and the space is left wide open — which is what lets the one added instrument register as an event. Donaldson: “‘This Light’ has cello also, always a good move.” That cello is Özgür Kaya’s, and it arrives in a mix that has deliberately saved room for it.
Standout Performance
Özgür Kaya’s cello on “this light.” In a record this economical, a single sustained line functions as a chorus.
Why It’s Certified
Because two people with no budget and a fifty-copy pressing made something a lot of much larger records reach for and miss. Donaldson placed it among “these minimalist twilight VU-ish bands,” heard “a lot in common with Australia’s Love Chants but with slightly more emphasis on melody,” and said “you can almost hear a Bedhead-like song forming in places, or early Cat Power.” He ended the write-up with “Instant fan.” Record Turnover, who caught Sta Dormida live at the blush label showcase in Berlin, wrote that playing acoustic guitar over a backing track she was “reminding me of groups like Cindy and Mazzy Star, she has a unique songwriting style.”
The vinyl is gone. The songs are not.