Glasow multi-instrumentalist corto.alto released his new single “31.Bleep (01)” via New Soil, a UK label for jazz and jazz adjacent music. corto.alto is the moniker of Glasgow multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Liam Shortall, a genre-defying producer who brings together influences from hip-hop, broken beat, electronica, dub, and punk with an informed jazz sensibility.
In the wake of corto.alto’s 2023 Mercury Prize-shortlisted album Bad With Names, Shortall challenged himself to record 108 tracks, ultimately releasing 30 of them over 30 days for a 2024 project titled 30/108. Previously unreleased, “31.Bleep (01)” was the first demo recorded for 30/108, and the single is the genesis of the collection.
“This is a track I’d been sitting on for a while, exploring the relationship between kick patterns in drum grooves and bass lines,” says corto.alto. “I wanted to subtly shift elements throughout the track in a way that the listener might not consciously notice. The title, ‘Bleep,’ reflects the fleeting nature of time—how it passes by almost imperceptibly. The track features the usual boys from my band, along with Norman Willmore from the Shetland Isles on saxophone.”
After becoming the youngest ever graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s undergraduate jazz program and earning a spot playing trombone with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Liam Shortall balanced his classical jazz training with a love for beat-making. Drawing inspiration from artists like Flying Lotus and A Tribe Called Quest, Shortall began recording his genre-defying music under the moniker “corto.alto,” a portmanteau which translates to “short.tall” in Spanish.
