Alessandro Cortini

Releases new album ‘Scuro Chiaro’

ALESSANDRO CORTINI

NEW ALBUM SCURO CHIARO – OUT NOW

Buy the album: https://mute.ffm.to/ac-sc

“Simultaneously brooding and beautiful” – Electronic Sound

“… draws from the cosmic yearning of ’70s Berlin, the stillness of ambient, and the deep focus of drone… what distinguishes it is its sonic character: distant, muted, at once futuristic and ancient.” – Pitchfork

“… a sonically ambitious wholly original transformative work that pulses and drones with a perfect blend of constriction and ephemerality.” – NARC

“An album of lo-fi synth-play, slow crescendos and evocative soundscapes.” – MusicOMH

Alessandro Cortini’s latest album, SCURO CHIARO, is out now on limited edition clear vinyl, CD and digitally: https://mute.ffm.to/ac-sc

SCURO CHIARO comes from a place that delights in the affirmation of life’s constant variations, simultaneously presenting both bewilderment and vulnerability with its sombre hues and pulsing, synthetic surfaces.

The album’s title plays on the term for heavily contrasting light and shadow in painting and other visual arts. Cortini explains, “SCURO CHIARO is the opposite of chiaroscuro [the use of light and shadow to give strong contrast], and in a way it shows that no matter how you order things there’s always going to be two elements that tend to be the opposite of each other that make up the truth—or make up everything.”

On his previous album, VOLUME MASSIMO (2019, his first for Mute), Cortini developed a process he carried through to this album, working through his archive of personal recordings, carefully surveyed to find sounds and elements with which to compose. “To me things that were created apart in time can fit together in a work of art, and it doesn’t matter when they were created,” says Cortini. “You drink wine that is ten years old with a meal that is freshly handmade. The final product, in my opinion, doesn’t need to be made at the same time.” The artwork for SCURO CHIARO, shot by Emilie Elizabeth, is an extension of the thematic bridge between the two works.

Cortini’s recently collaborated with electronic musical instrument manufacturer Make Noise to create a bespoke instrument and effects unit, Strega. “Strega is a successful attempt to condense my sonic aesthetic into a music making box,” Cortini says. “Throughout the time that I finished the record I was receiving prototypes, and their work was integrated on the record.”

The beauty of SCURO CHIARO lies in its contradictions. The abrasive elements that cycle in and out of focus across the album all find resolution in the warm ambiences that crackle and hiss into life in the background of every track.

Watch three collaborations with the director Marco Ciceri, working alongside CGI creator Axel Schoterman, for CHIAROSCURO, VERDE and LO SPECCHIO.

SCURO CHIARO TRACKLISTING:

ECCO

CHIAROSCURO

LO SPECCHIO

CORRI

SEMPRE

VERDE

NESSUNO

FIAMMA

RECENT DISCOGRAPHY:

ILLUSION OF TIME – with Daniel Avery (2020, Mute / Phantasy)

VOLUME MASSIMO (2019, Mute)

IMMEDIATE HORIZON – with Lawrence English (2018, Important Records)
AVANTI (2017, Point of Departure Recordings)
ALESSANDRO CORTINI AND MERZBOW (2017, Important Records)
FORSE (2015, Important Records)

‘CHIAROSCURO’: https://youtu.be/mE27ezBt6Nc
‘VERDE’: https://youtu.be/FwaxQho_65g
‘LO SPECCHIO’: https://youtu.be/H74JhRzCPC4

https://cortini.bandcamp.com/

https://twitter.com/blindoldfreak

https://www.instagram.com/alehan

https://soundcloud.com/alessandrocortini

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