We’ve been shouting about corto.alto for a while now, and with good reason. From his Mercury Prize-shortlisted Bad With Names, which was one of our Albums Picks of 2023, to the blistering 30/108 project that saw him release 30 tracks in 30 days, Liam Shortall keeps moving forward without ever looking back. The Glaswegian trombone wizard and genre-defying powerhouse has joined the Ninja Tune family and he’s marking the occasion with a scorching new single, ‘DON’T LISTEN’.  Clocking in as one of his most explosive and uncompromising works to date, the track hits hard with thick bass, warped vocals and sharp turns. “‘DON’T LISTEN’ is a left turn for me into instinct over instruction,” Shortall comments. “I wrote this track as a call to blocking out the noise, ignoring creative conformity and embracing the freedom to do whatever the fuck you want.”

The single also arrives with a visually wild video by Katie Sills, matching the music’s untamed energy. Watch the video below.

In other good news, corto.alto has a run of shows coming up, and we’re hyped to catch him at Matosinhos em Jazz in Porto on July 12th.

corto.alto has just shared a new track, ’32.Dip (108)’, a final gem from his ambitious 30/108 project, which saw him release 30 tracks in 30 days. It arrives after a huge year with wins for UK Jazz Act of the Year and The Innovation Award at the Jazz FM Awards, and follows the release of his Mercury Prize-shortlisted debut Bad With Names, which was one of our Album Picks of 2023. Built from the last of the 108 demos he made for 30/108, ’32.Dip (108)’ almost didn’t see the light of day, until the Glaswegian prodigious multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer found the missing link in a sample from his own track ‘Bye’, the closing piece on Bad With Names. As he puts it:

“This track was the last of the 108 demos I made for this project before beginning the long, tiring but ultimately rewarding process of working on the 30 tracks. It wasn’t included in the 30 singles because I never could figure out how to finish it. I ended up adding a sample of my own track ‘Bye,’ the last track on my Mercury Prize shortlisted album Bad With Names, and that felt like the missing piece. To me, ‘32.Dip (108)’ signifies the end of a sonic chapter for me as an artist, and the beginning of something new.”

’32.Dip (108)’ is offered with a visualizer and you can watch it below.

’32.Dip (108)’ is out now through New Soil

Glaswegian prodigious multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer corto.alto took us by storm last year with his debut album Bad With Names, which was one of our Album Picks of the Year. Liam Shortall, the trombone wizard at the helm of the project, has today unveiled an ambitious project. Entitled 30/108, it will see him release 30 tracks in 30 days through Bridge The Gap x New Soil. Liam explains how the project came about:

“After an intense 2 years of creating ’Bad With Names’ I was slightly burned out but excited to get back to writing new music. Once that album was finally finished, I knew I had 6 months of promotion before the album was released. During this time I produced 108 new demo ideas. Fast forward to the beginning of 2024, I had 108 ideas in a folder on my laptop that I knew if I didn’t finish they would never be heard by anyone – I then decided to dedicate the following 4 months to finishing 30 of these tracks; recording with some of my favourite musicians.”

Some of the musicians who collaborated with Liam on the project include Graham Costello (drums), Fergus McCreadie (piano) and Mateusz Sobieski (tenor saxophone).

The treasure chest that is 30/108 is unlocked today with lead single ‘Chubbby (48)’. Check it out below and be sure to stay tuned over the next 30 days for a fresh tune dropping every day!

Photo: Sophie Jouvenaar

corto.alto’s much anticipated debut album Bad With Names is coming October 6th through New Soil x Bridge The Gap, and yesterday he has released ‘EJS’, the fourth and final single from it. Speaking about the track, Liam Shortall, the prodigious multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer behind corto.alto, had this to say:

“I made this track originally as a beat when my girlfriend Esme moved into my house last year. I was in full album mode at the time and probably not being the most attentive partner to her. I originally had this track titled as ‘interlude’, but decided to retitled it to my partner’s initials after she left for south east asia for 2 months, whilst I sat in my freezing cold flat in Glasgow feeling sorry for myself, missing her. Exposing my feelings of loneliness, guilt from not being very attentive when she was around, codependency etc.”

‘EJS’ is offered with a video created by Esme Stewart. Watch it below.