(Photo by Emilie Elizabeth) Italian musician Alessandro Cortini has released his latest work, “Nati Infiniti”. This 40-minute piece, divided into five movements, is based on an immersive audio installation that took place across four floors of the Museu de Lisboa’s Fábrica da Moagem, a disused flour mill.

Commissioned by Sónar Lisboa 2022, “Nati Infiniti” captures the ambiance of the original installation. Each floor of the mill evoked different states through Cortini’s sound design, creating a different experience as listeners moved through the building. The album tries to reflects this movement.

Using the Strega instrument, co-designed by Cortini with Make Noise, the piece evolves across 40 minutes. Marta Salogni, known for her work with Björk and Depeche Mode, mixed and mastered the album into five movements. “Nati Infiniti” is available now, in various formats including vinyl, CD, and digital.

Cortini debuted the live audio-visual performance of “Nati Infiniti” at Berlin’s Atonal Festival. After a series of sold-out shows, he will tour North America and Europe throughout 2024 and 2025, with additional dates to be announced.

Cortini, a longstanding member of Nine Inch Nails, has released a steady stream of his own music on labels such as Mute, Hospital, and Important Records. His collaborations include work with Lawrence English, Daniel Avery, and Merzbow. He is also the only Italian musician inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His creations, like the Strega and the forthcoming Bruxa module, kinda show his innovative approach to music. He has composed for fashion shows by Alexander McQueen, Dior, and Fendi, and soundtracked Disney/Hulu’s hit show “The Bear”. His remixes include tracks for Depeche Mode, Mogwai, Death Cab for Cutie, Yann Tiersen, and Vatican Shadow.

Here’s a live impression of Cortini.

Alessandro Cortini tour dates

• 10/11/2024 – Seattle, WA, Age Of Reflections at Seattle First Baptist, US
• 10/12/2024 – Portland, OR, Age Of Reflections at Trinity Cathedral, US
• 10/13/2024 – Los Angeles, CA, Teragram Ballroom, US
• 11/20/2024 – Brussels, Bozar, BE
• 12/6/2024 – Berlin, Silent Green, DE
• 1/17/2025 – Paris, Trabendo, FR

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Emilie Elizabeth) Out 4 October on Mute, followed by UK, European and American tour dates, is the brand new album from Nine Inch Nails member Alessandro Cortini, “Nati Infiniti”. Today the Italian musician releases a first track, “IV”.

Watch the video for “‘”IV” with imagery by Marco Ciceri.

The 40-minutes album “Nati Infiniti” is composed of five movements and debuted as an audio installation commissioned by Sónar Lisboa 2022 that ran across four floors of the Museu de Lisboa’s Fábrica da Moagem, a disused flour mill.

The work – which utilises the Strega instrument that Cortini co-designed with Make Noise – was mixed and mastered by Marta Salogni (Björk, Depeche Mode, Lucrecia Dalt). The album will be out on vinyl (featuring an embossed silver mirror board sleeve), CD (with a clear varnished gatefold mirror board sleeve), and digitally.

About Alessandro Cortini

Alessandro Cortini is best known as a longstanding member of Nine Inch Nails (from 2005 to the present day), He has been releasing a steady stream of his own music on labels including Mute, Hospital, and Important Records for the past decade.

Throughout his career he has collaborated with the likes of Lawrence English, Daniel Avery, and Merzbow and found time to create the Strega (used on his previous album, “Scuro Chiaro”) and the forthcoming module, Bruxa, with Make Noise.

Additionally, he has remixed tracks for Depeche Mode, Mogwai, Death Cab For Cutie, Yann Tiersen, and Vatican Shadow.

Alessandro Cortini on tour

Cortini will embark on a tour of North America and Europe throughout ’24 and into ‘25 – with more dates to be added.

• 5 Sept 2024 – Reykjavik, Extreme Chill IS
• 19 Sept 2024 – Glasgow, Sonica Festival UK
• 3 Oct 2024 – Albany, NY, Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center, “The Egg” US
• 4 Oct 2024 – Queens, NY, Knockdown Center US
• 6 Oct 2024 – Boston, MA, Sonia US
• 7 Oct 2024 – Minneapolis, MN, The Cedar US
• 9 Oct 2024 – Chicago, IL, Empty Bottle US
• 10 Oct 2024 – Austin, TX, Central Presbyterian Church US
• 11 Oct 2024 – Seattle, WA, Age of Reflections at Seattle First Baptist US
• 12 Oct 2024 – Portland, OR, Age of Reflections at Trinity Cathedral US
• 13 Oct 2024 – Los Angeles, CA, Teragram Ballroom US
• 20 Nov 2024 – Brussels, Bozar BE
• 6 Dec 2024 – Berlin, Silent Green DE
• 17 Jan 2025 – Paris, Trabendo FR

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Sigtryggur Ari Johannsson) Out now is Paddan’s new EP “Fluid Time” on the Washington D.C.-based label Lovitt Records. We already reported about this release in March when a first track was revealed, and now the full EP is out. Behind Paddan we find the Icelandic musicians Birgir and Sigtryggur (members of Sugarcubes, KUKL).

Birgir and Sigtryggur formed Paddan during the 2010s, and their EP “Fluid Time” has been inspired by their perception of time and space. Birgir Mogensen says, “As a duo, we trusted our musical intuition and were guided by allowing the first idea to remain unchanged during the recording process.”

Recorded, produced, and arranged by the pair, Sigtryggur and Birgir play basses and drums along with various other instruments. All recordings are played on live instruments except a modular synth which is programmed in the background of two tracks The duo is joined by the harmonica and lap steel player Gaukur Davidsson on “Vaguely” and “Bug”, and trumpet player Eirikur Orri Ólafsson on “Splash”, not to mention Vaccines bassist Arni Hjörvar Árnason on mixing duties for the tracks “Bug,” “Splash”, and “Kokka”, and sound-mixer Albert Finnbogason on “Vaguely”.

The release is also out as a 12″ vinyl.

About Paddan

Paddan’s Sigtryggur Baldursson and Birgir Mogensen are lifelong friends from Kópavogur, Iceland, who started as mates on the local football team, then graduated to making music together as teenagers, and even later as young men doing time in the experimental punk collective KUKL, from 1983 – 1986. KUKL was populated by survivors of the post-punk scene in Iceland in the early 80s, which is well documented in the film “Rock in Reykjavik” from 1982.

The band was released by the Crass collective in London and featured members, apart from Birgir and Sigtryggur, like Guðlaugur Óttarsson, Einar Melax, Björk and Einar Örn, some of whom would become better known later in outfits like the Sugarcubes and their respective solo work and other collaborations.

Sigtryggur has a long career in music, having worked with among others, Emiliana Torrini, Howie B, Les Negresses Vertes, Tomas R. Einarsson, Petur Ben, KK, Kaktus Einarsson, and many many others. He also produces an award-winning documentary music show for RUV called Hljómskálinn.

Birgir Mogensen is a classically trained classical guitarist and bass player who has worked through the years with artists ranging from KUKL to Killing Joke to Spilafifl and Inferno5.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Sigtryggur Ari Johannsson) On May 10, Icelandic duo Paddan will release their new EP “Fluid Time” on the Washington D.C.-based label Lovitt Records. Today the band shares “Bug,” the first single, and its accompanying video, to be released from the forthcoming EP. Behind Paddan we find Birgir and Sigtryggur (members of Sugarcubes, KUKL).

On the song, the band’s Sigtryggur Baldursson says: “On ‘Bug’ we are working with the concept of using ideas very directly, documenting musical performances and using them more or less naturally, as they come. You could say we are putting our faith in the saying that first impressions are often correct. There is one modular synth in the background but everything else is played live on various instruments. Apart from bass, drums, and guitars we also have a harmonica and lap steel popping up in various places, played by Gaukur Davidsson.”

The material was recorded, produced, and arranged by the pair, Sigtryggur and Birgir play basses and drums along with various other instruments. All recordings are played on live instruments except a modular synth which is programmed in the background of two tracks The duo is joined by the harmonica and lap steel player Gaukur Davidsson on “Vaguely” and “Bug”, and trumpet player Eirikur Orri Ólafsson on “Splash”. You’ll also find Vaccines bassist Arni Hjörvar Árnason on mixing for “Bug,” “Splash” and “Kokka”, while sound-mixer Albert Finnbogason was active on “Vaguely.”

About Paddan

Paddan’s Sigtryggur Baldursson and Birgir Mogensen are lifelong friends from Kópavogur, Iceland, who started as mates on the local football team, then graduated to making music together as teenagers, and even later as young men doing time in the experimental punk collective KUKL, from 1983 – 1986. KUKL was populated by survivors of the post-punk scene in Iceland in the early 80s, which is well documented in the film “Rock in Reykjavik” from 1982. The band was released by the Crass collective in London and featured members, apart from Birgir and Sigtryggur, like Guðlaugur Óttarsson, Einar Melax, Björk and Einar Örn, some of whom would become better known later in outfits like the Sugarcubes and their respective solo work and other collaborations. Sigtryggur has a long career in music, having worked with among others, Emiliana Torrini, Howie B, Les Negresses Vertes, Tomas R. Einarsson, Petur Ben, KK, Kaktus Einarsson, and many many others. He also produces an award-winning documentary music show for RUV called Hljómskálinn.

Birgir Mogensen is a classically trained classical guitarist and bass player who has worked through the years with artists ranging from KUKL to Killing Joke to Spilafifl and Inferno5. Regarding the EP Birgir Mogensen says, “As a duo, we trusted our musical intuition and were guided by allowing the first idea to remain unchanged during the recording process”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The UK based Cold Spring label has a rather interesting re-release out on February 23 from Psychic TV: “Those Who Do Not”. The album holds recordings of a live concert by Psychic TV in Reykjavik, Iceland that took place in November 1983 and which was organized by HÖH and GRAMM Records.

The live album will be released on CD, and in 3 different 2LP versions: a version on red vinyl sold via Cold Spring only (230 copies) and one on white vinyl (230 copies) which will only be sold via indie record stores, plus a standard black vinyl edition.

At the moment of this live recording the lineup of the band also featured Peter Christopherson and Geff Rushton (John Balance) of Coil next to Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, John Gosling, Godkrist, Grey Wolf, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Thee TOPI Method and Priestess. This full show also holds the recordings of the Pagan marriage between Genesis and Paula P-Orridge conducted by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson Allsherjargodi.

Out of print for 23 years, the material has been meticulously remastered, with the track order finally arranged into what was the original show.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Soon out via Artoffact Records will be the fourth album, “Undir Köldum Norðumljósum” by the Icelandic synth-punks Kælan Mikla. “Undir Köldum Norðumljósum” features a guest appearance by Alcest, with whom Kælan Mikla toured Europe in early 2020.

Two singles have been released from the album so far in 2021 — “Sólstöður” and “Ósýnileg”.

Kælan Mikla was founded in 2013 as part of a poetry contest hosted by the Reykjavik Library. In 2015, the song “Kalt” was released, it was followed by three LPs and touring with the likes of King Dude and Drab Majesty and as headliners. Kælan Mikla also played The Cure’s 40th anniversary show,.

The upcoming fourth album, “Undir köldum norðumljósum”, is set for an October 15th release on Artoffact.

The lineup consists of Laufey Soffía Þórsdóttir, Margrét Rósa Dóru-Harrysdóttir and Sólveig Matthildur Kristjánsdóttir.

Here’s the track “Sólstöður” taken from the new album, an excellent track by the way.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Dean Wallflower) Icelandic artist Sólveig Matthildur has released a new single, “Venus”, available right now on all streaming platforms. You can check it below, and it was also added to our playlist on Spotify.

Based in Reykjavik, Iceland, Sólveig Matthildur is one of the founders of the post-punk band Kælan Mikla and also runs the record label Hið myrka man. In 2015 she moved to Berlin where she started a solo project under her own name working primarily with synthesizers, strings and voices circling around 20 hz sine waves that eventually start beating with your heart.

She has previously released two full-length albums on Artoffact Records. In 2020, Sólveig has used the pandemic downtime to release a series of singles on streaming platforms, and the new single “Venus” marks the fourth to be released this year.

The series of singles will culminate in 2021 with the release of Sólveig’s third full-length.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Due for Release 1 September via Rabid Records is The Knife’s “Shaking the Habitual: Live at Terminal 5” film, album & photobook. After a 7-year hiatus from playing live, the resulting musical saw The Knife expand from Karin and Olof to a 11-piece dance troupe.

The band employed designer Bella Rune to create bespoke instruments for the show, aiming to give the audience something more interesting to look at than a figure turning knobs and pressing buttons behind a laptop. On the last leg of the tour, in the autumn of 2014, photographer Alexa Vachon joined The Knife to document their journey. These photos have been collected in a limited-edition photobook.

The Knife was a Swedish electronic music duo from Gothenburg formed in 1999. The group consisted of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company, Rabid Records. The group gained a large international following in response to their 2003 album “Deep Cuts”. The Knife disbanded in November 2014 after releasing their 2013 album Shaking the “Habitual” and completing its attendant tour.

The Knife played their final show, entitled “Post-Colonial Gender Politics Come First, Music Comes Second”, on November 8, 2014 at the Iceland Airwaves Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland.

PS: The new album won’t be available to buy or stream in the following territories UK/Eire, USA/Canada, Asia & South/Latin America. This is due to a long running dispute between the band and its label partner in those territories, Brille Records.

Here’s the trailer for the release:

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Krummi Björgvinsson from the excellent Iceland based act Legend is crowd-funding a restaurant in Reykjavik together with 2 other partners (Linnea Hellström being a vegan chef from Sweden and vegan artist/painter/rapper Örn Tönsberg).

You can find the crowdfunding campaign right here, do check out the perks there are some really cool ones! But do hurry, there are only 4 days left!

With their restaurant, to be called Veganæsing, the trio wants “to lay down some new ground for the new wave of other vegans in Iceland, as well as cater to the steadily increasing stream of tourists coming through here looking for plant based treats.” That’s clear as a mission statement. Automatically they also hope to get non vegans into their seats as well, so even non full time vegans are more than welcome. One of the trio’s long time wishes is doing weekend brunches with live music.

They plan to open the restaurant inside of Gaukur á Stöng or Gaukurinn, one of the oldest live music venues in Reykjavik and one of the first bars to serve beer after the prohibition ended in 1989.

Here’s the video they made for the crowdfunding campaign.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Synthpop act Glass Apple Bonzai aka the solo creative output of Daniel X. Belasco, is back with a new album, “In the Dark” via the Toronto-based Artoffact Records. Side-Line readers who follow us on Spotify will already have noticed that the band landed on our popular playlist today thanks to their authentic 80s synthpop touch.

So far Glass Apple Bonzai has self-released two albums of synthwave and synthpop, and with quite some success as the band won the ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Electronic Dance Music Artist of the Year’ awards at the Niagara Music Awards in 2015 and 2016. They also performed at this year’s Iceland Airwaves Festival in Reykjavik, and played in Canada at the Terminus and Aftermath Festivals.

It’s the project’s third album and the first for a label. “In the Dark” will be released on December 9th as a 2CD digipak (order it here directly from the label’s mail-order) and with both black and purple vinyl formats following in the new year (but already available for ordering from the label’s mail-order). The album also features guest contributions from Alex Reed (Seeming) and fellow Canadian Hello Moth. The limited edition double-CD digipak includes an entire bonus disc of outtakes, demos, weird shit, and remixes.

Below is Glass Apple Bonzai with “Holy War”, the 2nd track from the album.

We also asked Daniel X. Belasco to define us the 5 albums that inspired “In the Dark”:

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult – I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits

Daniel X. Belasco: “Let’s start with the obvious. The first few My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult albums played a large part in the general tone and campiness I was going for with In the Dark. Most notably the usage of movie dialogue.”

“And This is What the Devil Does”

Talk Talk – The Party’s Over

Daniel X. Belasco: “To me, Talk Talk are one of the greatest bands ever and they serve as a constant source of inspiration for me in terms of songwriting and general attitude.”

“Talk Talk”

Killing Joke – Brighter Than a Thousand Suns

Daniel X. Belasco: “Like with Talk Talk, I view Killing Joke as one of the greatest bands that has ever existed. The lyrical content, the song construction, their power. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns has a wonderful ethereal quality that find its way into my music in various shapes, but it’s the raw awesomeness of Killing Joke that continues to inspire me.”

“Rubicon”

Front 242 – Official Version

Daniel X. Belasco: “I was listening to Official Version a lot while working on In the Dark and the influence is fairly obvious in spots, notably anywhere where the synthbass and drums are locked in tight with each other.”

“Masterhit”

The System – Sweat

Daniel X. Belasco: “I only discovered The System a couple of years ago while on a synthfunk binge and since then I’ve been hooked on their raw and emotional, yet simple funkiness. I’m a total sucker for strict mechanical beats and basslines and The System have that locked down hard.”

“You Are in My System”

Read the review of ‘In The Dark’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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