Glasgow musician Liam Shortall is frequently pegged as jazz, but in truth, corto.alto – the project he helms – crafts music that is broader, more expansive, and more multi-faceted than any one term. Sure, his exemplary full length ‘’ – nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2024 – sits loosely in a jazz sphere, but new album ‘’ is the sound of creative barriers being cracked open.
“It’s weird,” he observes. “I’m a jazz musician, I studied jazz, but it’s just one thing that I love. I’m into dub, classical music, and I was really into hip-hop production as a teenager. I’ve always been into a lot of different things and I’ve got such a wide interest in music. I’m interested in finding new ways to cross the lines of genre.”
A deeply collaborative experience, the new album moves from club bangers to lush string arrangements via vocals from alt-soul aesthete and Nigerian maverick , alongside Chicago wordsmith and Edinburgh freak folk angel . It’s a broad palette, as he readily admits. “I was intimidated by this as it’s something I haven’t done before,” he says. “And that’s why I did it. You kind of have to go in directions that make you excited. It was massively challenging, but I think I needed to do it at that point. It was uncharted waters.”
A painstakingly constructed experience, ‘SOME SMALL FORTUNE’ is endlessly broad but still feels like a cohesive artist statement. Each sonic attribute was debated, every tiny detail was intentional, even down to the final tracklisting itself. “I sat there for weeks trying to figure out which song was going where, and that changed the album completely. I’m a massive fan of listening to albums in order, which feels a bit like a dying art.”
Pushing himself to embrace different aspects of his creative identity, corto.alto has emerged stronger than ever. “I’ve realised that I’m a massive control freak,” he laughs. “When it’s instrumental, that’s allowed, as I’m making the decisions. But I’ve had to let go of that for this album, and at times I found that really challenging. It’s having to be able to trust the people you collaborate with more. It’s scary, sometimes, to do that. But it’s liberating and you’re always amazed by what you get back.”
In a striking sense, the new album has allowed corto.alto to claim independence from himself. “The big takeaway from this is having to let go, and just trusting in the process.”
‘SOME SMALL FORTUNE’ is out now.