Alessandro "Asso" Stefana "Moonshiner” (ft. Roscoe Holcomb) from the May 17th self-titled release. Pre-order the CD, Digital and limited edition Vinyl now at https://ipecac.lnk.to/asso

Video directed by Jacopo Leone

“This mysterious and beautiful music by Alessandro Stefana entrances me. Its fragility and tenderness bring comfort and understanding. It reflects the unique sensitivity of its creator, who has drawn on his experience to bring this profoundly moving, and life affirming record to the world.” - Polly Jean Harvey, Executive producer

"Achingly beautiful music from my beautiful friend!" - Mike Patton

Ipecac Recordings proudly presents the eponymous solo album from the Italian composer, multi-instrumentalist and Mike Patton/Calexico collaborator, Alessandro “Asso” Stefana,

"Moonshiner" is one of the tracks from the album featuring the voice of Roscoe Holcomb, taken from the Smithsonian Folkways Archives.

Asso describes his use of the archives as “a powerful and moving testimony to a bygone era… I have always been fascinated by the idea of mixing folk, a music so intimately linked to the land, with something that goes beyond the boundaries of the genre.” One of Asso’s aims for this album was for it to feel “suspended between earth and sky” - the interplay between decades old recordings with new improvisations evokes feelings of being grounded and untethered at the same time.

The musical journey of Alessandro "Asso" Stefana, hailing from Brescia, Italy, is a compelling one, and if you’ve heard PJ Harvey’s The Hope Six Demolition Project, Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane, Calexico's El Mirador, or Micah P. Hinson's I Lie to You, Penguin Cafe's Rain Before Seven..., or listened to Guano Padano’s output on Ipecac, you’ll have encountered him.

This album sees Asso perform an eclectic array of instruments and in varying genres, borrowing from rootsy folk and primitive blues to soundtracks, psychedelia, desert ballads and ambient explorations. He also dives into the Smithsonian Folkways archives, repurposing the voice of Roscoe Holcomb to create poignant interplay between past and present.

Each track across the album fades in and out like a sonic vignette or fragments of emotion situated in sound. A variety of instruments from different epochs emerge on the album, blending together in musical alchemy. From relatively obscure or nearly forgotten instruments of the early 1900s, such as the Marxophone, to pedal steel and lap steel guitars, tape echoes, psychedelic organs and folk fingerpicking.

Check out an "Introduction" playlist of songs that Asso has recorded and appeared on at https://asso.lnk.to/intro

TRACK LISTING:
1 - FADING AWAY
2 - FAREWELL TO DUST
3 - OUT OF THE BLUE
4 - THE WANDERING MINSTREL
5 - THE HOUSE
6 - BORN AND RAISED IN COVINGTON (FT. ROSCOE HOLCOMB)
7 - I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW (FT. ROSCOE HOLCOMB)
8 - MOONSHINER (FT. ROSCOE HOLCOMB)
9 - CONTINENTAL SPAZIO

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