Alessandro Cortini & Marco Ciceri^it

Now based in Portugal after a lengthy spell in the United States, Italian musician, producer, composer and instrument builder Alessandro Cortini sits at the forefront of contemporary electronic music. A veritable synth virtuoso and longstanding member of Nine Inch Nails and Modwheelmood, Alessandro Cortini has been releasing a steady stream of his own heady music for over a decade. To this, one must add his multiple collaborations with the likes of Lawrence English, Daniel Avery and Merzbow, as well as a number of parallel projects, notably blindoldfreak and Skarn.
Often located outside the realm of traditional sonic frameworks and conventions, much of Cortini’s solo work centers around the Buchla Music Easel, an intricate instrument that allowed him to create the mesmerizing Forse trilogy, a series of ambient drone albums. 2017’s Avanti added an introspective layer to Cortini’s discography by drawing inspiration from his grandfather’s old Super 8 videos, while 2019’s Volume Massimo expertly blended fluid sounds with comparatively more fraught ones. In 2021, collaborating with synth manufacturer Make Noise, Cortini created his very own semi-modular synth, nicknamed Strega (Italian for “witch”), and used it to craft his latest album Scuro Chiaro, through which he explored the concepts of life’s duality and equilibrium.

Alessandro Cortini wrenches human emotion out of synthesized noise. Using walls of analogue equipment to create an immersive ambient sound that’s both hopeful and ominous, his industrial compositions rise, crash, and subside. Performing 2019's Volume Massimo live in its entirety for his first MUTEK performance in Montréal, Cortini's sonic landscapes need to be felt to be believed.