Review of refugio by Laboule, Long Song records, 2013

And so it seems that .. here we comes Folks! The long shadow of weird folk has also reached the Italic suburbs. In 2011 Gino Dal Soler wrote the book "The circle is unbroken" where he sniffed inside 40 years of psychedelic visionary folk music and talked about the courageous recovery that some "probes" of fans were doing on a sporadic, uneconomical and discontinuous basis trying in the meantime to broaden the frayed borders.
And though most of them appear and disappear in the vast sea of possibilities offered by a market that has now reached uncontrolled dimensions, some of them have, in the course of years of patient and persistent work, consolidated a solid reputation earning them the right to continue on the roads begun by their heroes.
Laboule is his first album but the "meat" that puts the focus here is so great, excellent quality and very tasty. The references are those of Robbie Basho, visionary guitarist who managed to fuse together with his guitar 12-string acoustic blues, Indian music and pre war american folk/blues music.
Open tunings, a genuine and sincere approach, whispered songs, a sense of “space expansion” around his strings that fascinates and charms me .. time left suspended between the strings of an acoustic guitar.
Registered in the mountains, in the peace and solitude of the Rifugio Menaggio this record captures the size and the empty space of the Valtellina’s valleys, Laboule aka Paolo Novellino, born in Milan, demonstrates an impressive artistic maturity. Yes, references are Basho, Fahey and primitive guitar but Novellino metabolizes and revises this glorious past by refusing to let himself be imprisoned by it and stretches his look in the valleys and over Milan.
Highly recommended
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