Alessandro Cortini

Alessandro Cortini, an Italian musician, songwriter, and composer, first drew notice through contributions to multiple industrial and alternative endeavors, above all Nine Inch Nails, while simultaneously issuing atmospheric instrumental electronic recordings as a solo performer. He established the electronic rock outfit modwheelmood in the late 1990s, joined NIN’s touring lineup in 2005, then stepped away from the band at the close of 2008 to concentrate on his own ventures blindoldfreak and Sonoio. Reinstated with NIN in 2013, the same year he launched an extensive sequence of solo albums that highlighted his command of analog and modular synthesizers, Cortini has since issued haunting yet approachable records such as Volume Massimo in 2019 and Scuro Chiaro in 2021, alongside full-length joint projects with Merzbow, Lawrence English, and Daniel Avery. NATI INFINITI, drawn from music created for an immersive audio installation, surfaced in 2024.

Cortini entered the world in Bologna and grew up in Forlì, where his childhood fascination with music took root after he began capturing songs for his grandparents on a compact boombox. Pursuing formal study in composition, he moved to the United States as a young adult to train on guitar at Musicians Institute in California. Upon completing the program, he secured a position as touring guitarist for the Washington-based rock group the Mayfield Four, a role he held from 2001 through 2002.

Back in California after the tour concluded, Cortini suddenly shifted his focus toward keyboards and modular synthesis. He first explored the Steinberg Model E plug-in and created parts inside the Logic DAW, then escalated his involvement after transporting his cousin’s MiniMoog from Italy following a visit home. The tangible contrast between software emulation and physical hardware prompted him to immerse himself in synthesizer technology through self-directed study. He advanced this path by auditioning for Nine Inch Nails; the fit proved immediate, leading to appearances on the 2005 Live: With Teeth tour, Performance 2007, and the 2008 Lights in the Sky Over North/South America tour. In autumn 2006 he also served as special advisor to students enrolled in Musicians Institute’s Recording Artist program.

Early in 2009 Cortini stepped away from NIN on a temporary basis to develop several personal projects, one of them the alt-rock and electronica collaboration modwheelmood, begun in 1998 with Swedish musician Pelle Hillström, previously of Abandoned Pools. The band’s name referenced the modulation wheel found on the left side of keyboards; it independently issued five EPs, beginning with the 2003 release titled ?, followed by Enemies & Immigrants in 2006 and the three volumes of Pearls to Pigs issued across 2007 and 2008, with a comprehensive three-volume collection appearing in 2009. After completing that set, modwheelmood toured the U.S. West Coast and supplied remixes for Ladytron’s “Ghosts” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Great Destroyer.” The sole release from Cortini’s earlier blindoldfreak project, the album titled 1, also emerged in 2009. In contrast to the conventional song forms and melody-driven choruses of his other work, blindoldfreak emphasized atmosphere and mood generated spontaneously through synthesizer experiments and looping methods. That same year Cortini briefly replaced Morgan Nicholls as touring bassist for the English rock band Muse and received production credits on Velocifero and Gravity the Seducer by the Liverpool synth-pop act Ladytron.

In 2010 Cortini launched the solo project Sonoio, another purely electronic endeavor centered on the interplay of harmony and melody. Two albums appeared under the Sonoio name—Blue in 2010 and Red in 2011—each accompanied by a companion remix collection released the same year. The project showcased Cortini’s production approach and his affinity for modular synthesis, particularly the Buchla Music Easel. He additionally joined the touring ensemble of How to Destroy Angels, the post-industrial group featuring Mariqueen Maandig Reznor, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Nine Inch Nails art director Rob Sheridan. Years earlier Cortini had already resumed studio and live work with Nine Inch Nails, contributing substantially to Ghosts I-IV and The Slip in 2008 as well as Hesitation Marks in 2013, the latter earning him a co-writing credit on the introduction to “The Eater of Dreams” alongside Reznor; he toured in support of each release.

Beginning in 2013, the multi-instrumentalist composed a series of pieces issued under his own name through the U.S. indie label Important Records and Dominick Fernow’s Hospital Productions imprint. Much of this material originated while on the road, with Cortini characterizing 2013’s Forse 1 and Forse 2 as explorations on the Buchla and 2014’s Sonno as personal lullabies created during travel. Risveglio, his second Hospital Productions release, arrived in 2015 and was composed predominantly on the Roland MC-202 monophonic synth/sequencer together with the Roland TB-303 bass synth. In early 2017 he was announced as returning to Nine Inch Nails’ touring lineup for the summer performance season; that year also saw the release of a collaborative album with Japanese noise pioneer Merzbow, a 7-inch with experimental techno producer Daniel Avery, and the solo album Avanti. Remaining prolific, he issued Fine, the third Sonoio album, and Immediate Horizon, a duo project with Lawrence English, the following year.

Cortini joined the Mute roster in 2019 for his eighth studio album Volume Massimo, among his more melodic and approachable solo statements. Illusion of Time, another full-length collaboration with Avery, appeared in 2020. Later that year Laced Records released the soundtrack to Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, co-composed by Cortini, Alain Johannes, and Norm Block. After distributing numerous archival and live recordings online, he returned to Mute with the 2021 album Scuro Chiaro. NATI INFINITI, drawn from material originally written for an installation at the Sónar Lisboa festival in 2022, was released in 2024.