Alessandro Cortini

'Avanti' (album stream)

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Oct 6, 2017

Following a few sonic teasers, Alessandro Cortini's new album Avanti is here. So if you've been wondering what the Nine Inch Nails synth wiz has in store for us this time, you can stream it in full now.

As previously reported, Cortini recorded all of the album's tracks live on a single synth (the EMS Synthi AKS) with no overdubs to be found. This very much gives the album an intimate feel that you might have not got from previous Cortini albums. It also results in perhaps the composer's most fragile and delicate recording.

A press release previously explained this of the record's origins:

Prior to making the record, Cortini rediscovered an archive of home videos made by his grandfather, who passed away a few years previously. Among the cache were several Super 8 films of family gatherings as well as hours of dinner-time conversations recorded on cassette for posterity. It was as if Cortini had unearthed a perfect fossil of his childhood. The films, however, were missing one crucial element — the sound. So Cortini decided he would restore the miss-ing audio in his own way, by composing a musical accompaniment to the footage.

As it turned out, Cortini had a few blanks to fill in himself. The films exposed some inconsistencies in his memories, moments that he romanticised or misremembered. But what surprised him the most was that the recordings appeared to be almost as fallible as his recollections — both showed signs of degradation.


Avanti is out now via the Point of Departure Recording Company/PIAS, and you can stream it below.



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