Alessandro Cortini has been a part of the live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails for the better part of a decade, serving as keyboard player from 2004 to 2008 and again since the band reunited for live gigs in 2013. But while NIN are known for their shock-and-awe approach to onstage performance, Cortini’s latest solo release moves in a completely different direction.
AVANTI is Cortini’s newest work, a collection of dark and introspective synth-based tracks, sitting somewhere in between ambient music and pop song. All the tracks are instrumental, contracting and swelling like a Stars of the Lid epic with all of the emotion and drama associated with said band. It’s beautiful and timeless, and connects on a much different level than the bombast of “March of the Pigs” or even Trent Reznor’s emotionally raw works like “Hurt” or “Something I Can Never Have.”
Today we’re proud to premiere the video for “Vincere,” of which Cortini says, “’Vincere’ — ‘to win’ — follows the main theme of AVANTI as a whole: memories that are gone but leave a sense of sweet melancholy, embellished by the very thing that makes them faulty. ‘Vincere’ is about youth, about pure happiness and utter lack of fear … Just look at that smile — that’s a little me in the video. … Getting back to that purity should be everyone’s ultimate goal in life.”
You can pre-order AVANTI here via the Point of Departure Recording Company, ahead of its October 6th digital release.