Alessandro Cortini is readying a new album entitled SCURO CHIARO for release on June 11th via Mute. The follow-up to his 2019 LP for the label, VOLUME MASSIMO, the upcoming effort bears some resemblance to its predecessor due to a similar approach. The musician explains:
“I really enjoyed the fact that VOLUME MASSIMO became a series of rough colors that I added to in order to specify a more definite image or a more definite painting in a way. It’s something that I hadn’t done before, as a lot of my recordings are live recordings. With SCURO CHIARO, I went back to this process. A lot of the compositions that I included are compositions that I listened to, worked with, massaged, and shaped the corners for them to fit in this specific puzzle—but there was less dissection, less hair, and make-up than VOLUME MASSIMO.”
Cortini’s prolific output, whether solo, with Nine Inch Nails, or with collaborators like Merzbow, Lawrence English, or Black Moth Super Rainbow, has always reflected a variety of sonic approaches. But at the heart of it, the artist has sought to align his creative life with his human and personal existence. Discussing this fact as it relates to SCURO CHIARO, he offers:
“I think that the emphasis on the therapeutic element of the record is really important as that’s the way that it was created. I think I’m trying to make who I am artistically fit with who I am as a human being as much as possible, and for the two things not to fight each other, just to collaborate in order to reach happiness. I think at the end, that’s all that matters. It’s just finding a way to be balanced as a human being.
When I press record, it’s like I’m recording an emotional musical statement, and it could become the album, or it could just stay on my hard drive and bake for another ten years until I feel like it reflects something I can identify with.”
In addition to this rich emotional terrain, Cortini reports collaborations with the electronic instrument developer Make Noise coincided with SCURO CHIARO‘s creation. The result of their work together is a now publicly available instrument and effects unit called Strega. The musician tells us:
“Strega is a successful attempt to condense my sonic aesthetic into a music-making box. Throughout the time that I finished the record, I was receiving prototypes, and their work was integrated on the record. “
Today, Alessandro Cortini has a new video for the SCURO CHIARO track “CHIAROSCURO” directed by Marco Ciceri. Much like the track’s title, the CGI-generated imagery is a dramatic interplay between light and dark as strangely familiar but surreal forms shift and twist into new shapes and compelling perspectives.
