Alessandro Cortini - Ecstatic escapes

We caught up with Alessandro Cortini right around the release of his new album, “Volume Massimo". In this conversation, the Bologna-born producer tells us about the genesis of his music, the upcoming tour, past collaborations and his relationship with machines, with a few essential tips for young people about to approach the wonderful and complicated world of synthesizers.

“Volume Massimo”: where does this title come from?

While making the album, listening to the various tracks through headphones on my smartphone, I realized I couldn't turn my volume up much further. And so, alongside a certain concern for the state of my hearing, I realized I had at least found the perfect title for the album.

“Forward” has more autobiographical traits, which we don't find here. What are the differences with “Volume Massimo”?

“Volume Massimo” picks up where “Forward” leaves off, because “Amore Amaro”, for example, is a track written for “Avanti”, but it didn't quite work at the time, so I set it aside for later. The main difference is that this is a record where I tried to use more than one instrument. “Avanti” is built on a single instrument and a live recording, while on “Volume Massimo” you find a collection of pieces played on more than one instrument. Then there's also the guitar. It's definitely a work where I felt more at ease in the studio, and so also in finding instruments that share a connection in terms of timbre, and getting them to work together, as well as using the guitar, which incidentally was my first instrument. I managed to get back to a point where the guitar is used as a kind of synthesizer, instead of being what it was for years, just a way of trying to reach the unattainable Steve Vai, especially when I was fourteen.

A European tour with three Italian dates: Bologna, Venice and Rome. How are you preparing for it, and what should we expect from your new show?

“Volume Massimo” live is an exponential representation of its studio version, I mean as a sonic platform. We've added a visual dimension that lets the listener draw the same emotional experience you get from the album. We worked with different directors on content depending on the track. These are videos that have a story, but whose meaning is open to each listener's own interpretation. It's a multi-dimensional presentation of what the album is in itself.

Titles in Italian once again: why?

They've always come to me in Italian. Apart from “Let Go”, which is called that because the same phrase in the track is altered using speech synthesis technique, certain wordplays, like “Amore Amaro” and “Amaro Amore”, arise because both tracks are made with the same instrument and are part of the same synth patch. They were simply played differently afterwards. So in a sense they're extremely connected to each other.

Trent Reznor, Lawrence English, and Merzbow: who left the biggest mark on you?

Each of them left something unforgettable in his own way. English is a very close friend, and it was a very spontaneous collaboration, recorded and then listened back to three years later; Merzbow is a noise idol, and it was a quick partnership, we exchanged files, then one day we found ourselves playing together in Tokyo. With Trent it was a longer, more varied experience, marked by different developments over the years, comings and goings, exits and entrances, and it clearly left its mark on me, for better or worse, both musically and personally.

In today's music, synthesizers are increasingly riding the crest of the wave. So, what would you say to a young person approaching the wonderful and complicated universe of machines for the first time?

Absolutely don't watch anything on YouTube, walk into a shop, head toward the instrument that attracts you most visually, put on the headphones and play it. If there's a connection, then that's the right one. That direct human connection with the machine matters more than any technical or online research you could do while looking for an instrument. Music is based entirely on creative instinct and on a relationship of attraction to the machine, and that only develops if you tune out the noise out there and go face to face with the instrument that draws you in. There's no machine I'd recommend across the board. For me it was the Buchla, after years of financial struggle. People think you have to be rich to buy this stuff. But really it's the result of targeted choices. Maybe you don't have a house or a car, and you direct your choices toward buying things that can make you happy. Then there's also cheaper gear, I'm thinking especially of “Sonno” and “Awakening”, made with a Roland MC-202, found secondhand for a few hundred euros: a machine I felt very connected to, whose broken sequencer ended up being very effective. A personal relationship untouched by outside research is very important for shaping your own musical identity, because in the end the best things are the instinctive ones, the ones that come about without overthinking. The spark has to come from that relationship, like a child with his toy.

Is there one experience that inspired you more than others in the genesis of this work?

I make music every day, I'm always recording, and these compositions end up scattered across various folders on my PC. Some connect with others, like fish swimming close together in schools, and others don't. Sometimes pieces take years to come together, reconnecting in some specific sense. Many of the tracks on “Volume Massimo” had already existed for a while. In the end I decided to arrange them as an album, giving everything one final coat of paint. There's no primordial spark, the album itself is the primordial spark.

The cover was created by Emilie Elizabeth and Raki Fernandez. Emilie is also your wife. Tell us how this cover came about.

It was an experiment. We'd never worked together before, since she's a fashion photographer. Emilie always worked in the United States, and when we moved to Berlin, I'd say she managed to break away from that more automated world of fashion photography, and devote herself more to creative collaborations for art's sake, which was something rather lacking in the States. At first I had very vague ideas about the cover for “Volume Massimo”. I was thinking of this big apparatus on the head that could recall a loudspeaker, something that evoked Art of Noise or Grace Jones' album covers. Well, I gave Emilie these suggestions and she then created the whole thing brilliantly. I'm very happy about it, because the whole thing could have marked either the birth or the end of our marriage (laughs). We're always talking about art and I'm a very emotional person. It's very easy for me to lose my patience, not necessarily aimed at the person in front of me, but in general. Being American, she still hasn't quite figured that out... (laughs).

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