The Outlaw Crooner of Suburbia

http://www.elliotsheedy.com

Alessandro Cortini is an Italian musician, producer, composer, and instrument builder. 

Cortini is one of the foremost figures of contemporary electronic music, best known for his haunting, atmospheric work. Alongside being a longstanding member of Nine Inch Nails, he is highly prolific and has released a steady stream of his own heady music on luminary labels including Mute, Hospital, and Important Records for the past decade. Throughout his shadowy rise to fame, he has collaborated with the likes of Lawrence English, Daniel Avery and Merzbow (to name a few). Balancing dark ambience with smokey, pulsing rhythms, his compositions are perfectly restrained, textured and mesmeric. 

Cortini was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 through his work with Nine Inch Nails, making history as the only Italian musician to have ever been honored with this recognition. 

In 2021, in collaboration with boutique synth builders Make Noise, Cortini released his own, custom-designed, semi-modular synth, “Strega” (Italian for ‘witch’). That same year, he used Strega to build his latest full length, Scuro Chiaro [Mute], which Pitchfork described as “pitched somewhere between purgatory and the planetarium ... consistently managing to thrill and surprise”. 

In addition to years of extensive worldwide touring, Cortini has also soundtracked fashion shows including Alexander McQueen, Dior, and several of Fendi’s presentations. In 2022, he exhibited a high-concept audio installation called “Nati Infiniti” for Sonar 2022 at Museu de Lisboa’s “Fábrica de Moagem.” A live version of “Nati Infiniti” is set to debut at Berlin Atonal in 2023.

Alessandro Cortini’s music has been licensed for use in television, film and documentaries, games, and commercials, including FX’s hit show The Bear, “Thank You Very Much” a documentary about Andy Kaufman, Samsung, BMW, Sony, and Netflix. Remixes have also been a part of Cortini’s identity – remixing the likes of Depeche Mode to Mogwai to Death Cab For Cutie, Yann Tiersen to Vatican Shadow, and more between and beyond.

Helene Augustine is the musical project for the visual artist Jenn Myers, based in southern Virginia.  These are like queer prayers - the best form to express the never-ending rhyme/devotion that inhabits my being. Tragedy and miracle expressed as heartbreak and devotion.  All of it.  My version of ecstatic poetry.  I began this practice with a Casio keyboard and have now graduated to a Yamaha P45 digital piano. Using very basic chord structures for accompaniment, Helene Augustine performs with the borrowed/inherited name of my great great-aunt who died in 1901 at the age of 18 in Austin, TX.

PMDS is an electronic act that incorporates elements of ambient, experimental, and techno. Formed by Pedro Sousa and Filipe Caetano. The former has classical piano training and Filipe has many miles as a DJ; both sharing a (un)controllable passion for analog gear, synthesizers, and other gadgets that only similar freaks will recognize.
In their live shows, they take part of their analog gear and build tracks from scratch partially relying on improvisation: making way for something increasingly rarer: the human error. Pedro’s characteristic, heavily processed pianos, and self-made electro-acoustic instruments, and Filipe’s techno influenced beats, and bass, allow listeners to immerse in an electronic dream.In their live shows, they take part of their analog gear and build tracks from scratch partially relying on improvisation, making way for something increasingly rarer: the human error. Pedro’s characteristic heavily processed pianos and self-made electro-acoustic instruments and Filipe’s techno influenced beats and bass allow listeners to immerse in an electronic dream.

In The Machine Age is based in Pittsburgh and operates the recording imprints Sleeve (http://sleeve.press), Love What You Feel (http://on.fb.me/HrV3mC), Machine Age Records (http://on.fb.me/HdJRQr), Pittsburgh Tracks (http://on.fb.me/Hidmhq), and Peyton Records.

Jon David Russell is a Pittsburgh-born musician, composer, producer and visual artist

Aaron Michael Smith (UN/NO) is a composer, violist and artist currently based in Boston, MA.  Aaron is interested in exploring the way that various practices and mediums overlap, reflect and contradict one another.  He is often engaged in collaborations with filmmakers, visual artists, philosophers and other musicians.

masters: 
composition with Joshua Fineberg & Rodney Lister @ Boston University
undergrad: 
music composition & viola performance @ Indiana University Jacobs School of Music - Bloomington, Indiana
from a small town in northern Indiana called Wabash.  

contact me here or at aaronmichaelcomposer AT gmail.com

Elliot Sheedy is following