Live at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds: corto.alto

It’s been an intense but rewarding few years for Shortall and his corto.alto project (the stage name a nod to his Irish-Spanish heritage, translating as “short.tall” in Spanish). The release of his debut album ‘Bad With Names’ saw him nominated for the 2024 Mercury Music Prize – alongside fellow Scot and now label-mate Barry Can’t Swim and the likes of Charli xcx, Ghetts, Beth Gibbons (Portishead), Nia Archives, CMAT and more – and saw him booked to play hundreds of shows across the world, including high-profile festival performances and a sold-out UK tour that featured his own personally curated 2000-capacity “Made In Glasgow” mini-festival at the city’s legendary Barrowlands Ballroom venue.

The music he makes as corto.alto is never easily categorised. It leans as much on his formal studies at the prestigious Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, as on his time spent as part of the burgeoning and fertile music scene in Glasgow; incorporating an eclectic mix of influences that draw as much on his affinity with club-culture and all its forms of Electronic Music, or to his love of classic Hip-Hop, Soul and Funk. His 2024 album ‘30/108’ saw him freely blend genre, tempo and instrumentation across 30 tracks – one released each day of the month, drawn from a pool of 108 demos and accompanied by live performance videos – showcasing his flair for fast-thinking creativity, innovation and improvisation over a more rigid studio approach. Exploring the fertile ground between live instrumentation and electronic productions and sound design is also a cornerstone of corto.alto’s blistering live shows that – along with handling bass, synth, trombone and effects – sees him turn band-leader, amongst his crew of hyper-talented musicians; all close friends and frequent collaborators.

It’s this fresh outlook and a hunger to subvert expectations that sets Shortall apart, winning him a new generation of music fans unbeholden to any one scene, alongside champions across radio and media like Gilles Peterson, Sian Eleri, Jamz Supernova, Deb Grant, KCRW and many more.