Alessandro “Asso” Stefana has spent his career playing the facilitator. The Italian’s musicality and virtuoso have seen him shape shift between different scenarios and sound worlds, and whilst having spent time in bands such as the Fluorescent Pigs, Guano Padano, Zeno De Rossi Shtik and Lumière Électrique, most notably, Stefana has featured on the likes PJ Harvey’s The Hope Six Demolition Project, Calexico’s El Mirador and Micah P. Hinson’s I Lie to You as well as being a part of Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane.
It’s this galactic shifting from over the years which inspires the songs from his new self-titled release, where Stefana emerges from the shadows into the spotlight.
With Harvey assuming the role as executive producer, on Alessandro “Asso” Stefana, Stefana takes folk music and cross-pollinates it with a host of other ideas, and the results are intriguing. With a nomadic quality, there’s a gentleness, romanticism and honesty in his songcraft that lights up the room.
Starting with Fading Away, this blur of strings and whirring synths steers us into the enclave that is Stefana’s world. On Farewell to Dust, he conjures up the kind of rich emotional balladry that should bring a tear to the eye, but instead draws a smile simply because of how beautiful it actually is.
Following is Out of the Blue and The Wandering Minstrel – cosmic meanderings that fall somewhere between the atmospheric majesty of Suss and a fictional version of droneroom; one that is more accessible, drawn to melody like a moth to the flame.
Alessandro “Asso” Stefana - Alessandro “Asso” StefanaThen there’s The House. Steeped in the kind of organic country sound that has served William Tyler so well, here Stefana streamlines the idea with an uncanny simplicity that somehow has you seeing images instead of hearing sounds. It’s rustic balladry straight from the heart, and it feeds into Born and Raised in Covington – the first of three tracks to feature the voice of Roscoe Holcomb taken from the Smithsonian Folkways archives. A blues lament brimming with sentiment, it’s the kind of sincere, modest music made with a tenderness all record collections need.
It continues on I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow – a communion of sound with harrowing, hymnal backdrops. Echoing with organs and the gentle rattling of strings, if one didn’t have time to relay their parting wishes before leaving this world, then those left to pick up the pieces could do a lot worse than to choose this as the departed’s farewell song. It just has an inexplicable democratic quality that comforts all.
Next up is Moonshiner – a vignette of slow-paced psychedelia that inadvertently kicks against the fast-paced nature of this world. It’s a contrast between the old and new world that Stefana evokes through these moments, and he does it best here with simplified songcraft that reminds us why we fell in love with music in the first place.
The hymnal qualities return on the closing track, Continental Spazio. Over 13 minutes in length, with whirring organs and sullen tones, it’s a piece that stirs up the embers and shatters the heart. Again, it’s the contrast, this time between hope and despair and, all told, it encapsulates the experience of Alessandro “Asso” Stefana. An allegory of life through sound, and the way that Stefana captures and frames it is simply beautiful.
Alessandro “Asso” Stefana is out Friday via Ipecac Recordings. Purchase from Bandcamp.
