Sonoio: Alessandro Cortini’s Kickass New Project.
Alessandro Cortini, most widely known as being the touring keyboardist for Nine Inch Nails for four years and also known for being half of the duo named modwheelmood, has gone solo. Which is oddly close to saying the name of his new project, Sonoio, which is Italian for “it’s me”. So, it’s all one big statement of the seclusion involved. But with this seclusion and this control, as much as he was kickass in NIN and MWM, Cortini really shines.
Cortini released 4 songs from his upcoming, self-titled album on his website for free, plus a bunch of pre-order packages. They are as little as the $8 digital album and pre-order exclusive demo/outtake EP, to the mega $200 “Geek Bundle”, including a homemade synthesizer made so you can mess around with the Sonoio sounds, a limited art print of the album cover signed by Cortini, a CD signed and numbered by Cortini, the digital album, the pre-order exclusive EP, and a pre-order exclusive t-shirt. Between those two, you have 7 different packages with different combinations of all of the offerings. If you don’t think that is choices, you need to read a dictionary.
But, of course, the main point of all this is the music. Even more so, is it worth spending $200 on? The answer to that is simple: yes. Just yes.
The four tracks released by Cortini on the website for free, “Just Me”, “Suck Up Everything”, “Not Worth Remembering” and “Silence”, are nothing short of addictive. All the songs on the album are made using only one synthesizer, Cortini’s voice, and some very few and scattered extras, so they all feel connected by sound. Some of the songs feel like electro-pop music you may hear on the radio in Europe, while others are ambient tracks with calm build-ups. All the songs are full of melody and get stuck in your head abnormally fast. You’ll be finding yourself snapping and singing along to the song randomly many hours after hearing the songs because they are just that catchy. Not catchy in a bad way though, like pop-radio. It’s catchy because it’s written well and it has that feel of accessibility without being something you’ve heard a hundred times before.
Plus, Mr. Cortini is an extremely nice guy, and I don’t know about you, but when a talented musician is nice, it makes me want to buy his music even more.
There isn’t much to report on this project as the album hasn’t even come out yet, but I am recommending this to anyone. At least download the 4 songs on his website for free, because you’ll be happy you did.