Giulia Dabalà Digging for “Gold”
Newly out via Irascible is “Gold”, the highly anticipated debut album from Swiss/Italian singer and songwriter Giulia Dabalà. It took Dabalà three years to compose and record the eight tracks that make up the record, an indication of how much care and heart she invests in her work. Almost in passing, and thus considerably yanking up the sense of expectation that preceded her next step, she was handed the overall winner’s trophy at the 2020 Demotape Clinic at the m4music festival in Zurich.
Growing up in a musical family that also loved travelling, 24-year-old Dabalà draws on a wide palette of musical colours. The album title, “Gold”, for instance, far from being a reference to bling and riches, is a reference to Burma where she spent part of her childhood and where “gold” is seen as a symbol for inner strength and individuality. The song itself is a powerful declaration of rights from a young woman refusing to be cowed by the toxic voices of patriarchy: “Think you’re so nice but truth be told, you’d break a pearl to fit your mould/You’re terrified, you’re getting old, You pick on me, you steal my gold”.
Recorded with Daniel Somaroo in Basel, Dario Lanelotti in Rome, and with Christoph Farine in Neuchatel, “Gold” is a richly textured collection of songs that draws together strands as diverse as Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Latin American percussion or an electronic bass sound not a million miles away from James Blake, to weave a musical tapestry that is entirely Dabalà’s own.
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