Album reviews:
2024: Alessandro „Asso“ Stefana
Alessandro „Asso“ Stefana
Album: Genre Highlight | Released: 2024 | Specific Genre: Ambient Americana | Undertones: Old-time, Blues, Ambient, Drone, Contemporary Folk | Label: Ipecac Recordings
In some deep valley, for many years there I may lay
Beautifully constructed, Stefana’s moody and mist-blind solo debut interweaves slow piano clusters and shimmering guitars to create a somewhat haunting, soothing blanket of sound. At first, there is little to cling on to, leaving you adrift in a bright whiteout. The first half of this ambient americana suite has a glistening, nostalgic sheen to it, but then digs deeper into the fog of history with every track, slowly adding rootsy elements, leaving the somewhat non-descript guitar atmosphere behind – the bluesier the licks, the better it gets.
This new-age-feint is part of the concept, as a moment of true brilliance hits when none other than Roscoe Holcomb’s decade-old vocals of gnarled, weary, acapella folk tunes appear, take over and simply start to soar with sorrow – these weren’t coined the ‘high lonesome sound’ for nothing. I especially like that Holcomb’s conjured spirit is not treated with misplaced respect – the vocals are front and middle, but they’re not needlessly historicized sonically. The three songs of these uncannily staged vocal performances set to a haze of tasteful, sometimes swooning, sometimes muted steel guitars and drones are followed by the wordless ambient of “Continential spazio”, which lets Holcomb’s performance sink back into nothingness, adding to its emphasis. The album is wonderfully confident in its slow, drifting built-up and really needs to be appreciated as a suite. Great stuff, and it did become my soundtrack of an especially foggy November.
Text Lambrecht 