For the best part of the last decade, Dumfries-born, Glasgow-raised Shortall has been in his home studio in the Southside of the Scottish city, cooking up frenetic improvisations, diligently wonky productions and genre-spanning compositions with a close-knit group of local collaborators.It is Shortall’s freeform, irrepressible sound that has earned him a Mercury Music Prize nomination for 2023’s debut album ‘Bad With Names’ and the AIM Award for Breakthrough Artist in 2025, spurring a sold-out UK tour in 2025 that including a triumphant performance at a sold out KOKO in London, as well as debut Australia and US tours and dates throughout Europe. The music he makes as corto.alto is never easily categorised. It leans as much on his formal studies at the prestigious Royal ­Conservatoire of Scotland, as on his time spent as part of the burgeoning and fertile music scene in Glasgow; incorporating an eclectic mix of influences that draw as much on his affinity with club-culture and all its forms of Electronic Music, or to his love of classic Hip-Hop, Soul and Funk. His 2024 album ‘30/108’ saw him freely blend genre, tempo and instrumentation across 30 tracks – one released each day of the month, drawn from a pool of 108 demos and accompanied by live performance videos – showcasing his flair for fast-thinking creativity, innovation and improvisation over a more rigid studio approach. Exploring the fertile ground between live instrumentation and electronic productions and sound design is also a cornerstone of corto.alto’s blistering live shows that – along with handling bass, synth, trombone and effects – sees him turn band-leader, amongst his crew of hyper-talented musicians; all close friends and frequent collaborators.On the 4th of September 2026, corto.alto will release his 3rd album SOME SMALL FORTUNE. The album showcases Shortall’s widest range of features to date, which as well as those mentioned above also include Jacob Alon, Oscar Jerome, BINA., Terra Kin and Eriff alongside his longtime bandmates including drummer Graham Costello, separately Mercury Prize-nominated pianist Fergus McCreadie and saxophonist Mateusz Sobieski. The result is an electronic, classical, pop and indie-influenced record that extends far beyond the confines of its meticulous making. “I wanted to write songs with artists that I love and have a proper collaboration with them, rather than be a control freak,” says Shortall. “That’s why I reached out to someone like Mick Jenkins, who I’ve listened to forever, and the amazing Scottish songwriter Jacob Alon, as well as a shapeshifter like BINA.. I’m entering a different world with this music.”Each track is artfully layered and strikingly different from the last, yet they all cohere in the joyous soundworld of Shortall’s imagination. It’s a collage-like approach that is equally reflected in the album artwork where hundreds of those rediscovered childhood photos of Shortall are shredded, pieced together and scanned to ultimately make up a new, warped imagining of his face.    It’s this fresh outlook and a hunger to subvert expectations that sets Shortall apart, winning him a new generation of music fans unbeholden to any one scene, alongside champions across radio and media like Gilles Peterson, Sian Eleri, Jamz Supernova, Deb Grant, KCRW , KEXP and many more.

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For the best part of the last decade, Dumfries-born, Glasgow-raised Shortall has been in his home studio in the Southside of the Scottish city, cooking up frenetic improvisations, diligently wonky productions and genre-spanning compositions with a close-knit group of local collaborators.

It is Shortall’s freeform, irrepressible sound that has earned him a Mercury Music Prize nomination for 2023’s debut album ‘Bad With Names’ and the AIM Award for Breakthrough Artist in 2025, spurring a sold-out UK tour in 2025 that including a triumphant performance at a sold out KOKO in London, as well as debut Australia and US tours and dates throughout Europe. 

The music he makes as corto.alto is never easily categorised. It leans as much on his formal studies at the prestigious Royal ­Conservatoire of Scotland, as on his time spent as part of the burgeoning and fertile music scene in Glasgow; incorporating an eclectic mix of influences that draw as much on his affinity with club-culture and all its forms of Electronic Music, or to his love of classic Hip-Hop, Soul and Funk. His 2024 album ‘30/108’ saw him freely blend genre, tempo and instrumentation across 30 tracks – one released each day of the month, drawn from a pool of 108 demos and accompanied by live performance videos – showcasing his flair for fast-thinking creativity, innovation and improvisation over a more rigid studio approach. Exploring the fertile ground between live instrumentation and electronic productions and sound design is also a cornerstone of corto.alto’s blistering live shows that – along with handling bass, synth, trombone and effects – sees him turn band-leader, amongst his crew of hyper-talented musicians; all close friends and frequent collaborators.

On the 4th of September 2026, corto.alto will release his 3rd album SOME SMALL FORTUNE. The album showcases Shortall’s widest range of features to date, which as well as those mentioned above also include Jacob Alon, Oscar Jerome, BINA., Terra Kin and Eriff alongside his longtime bandmates including drummer Graham Costello, separately Mercury Prize-nominated pianist Fergus McCreadie and saxophonist Mateusz Sobieski. The result is an electronic, classical, pop and indie-influenced record that extends far beyond the confines of its meticulous making. “I wanted to write songs with artists that I love and have a proper collaboration with them, rather than be a control freak,” says Shortall. “That’s why I reached out to someone like Mick Jenkins, who I’ve listened to forever, and the amazing Scottish songwriter Jacob Alon, as well as a shapeshifter like BINA.. I’m entering a different world with this music.”

Each track is artfully layered and strikingly different from the last, yet they all cohere in the joyous soundworld of Shortall’s imagination. It’s a collage-like approach that is equally reflected in the album artwork where hundreds of those rediscovered childhood photos of Shortall are shredded, pieced together and scanned to ultimately make up a new, warped imagining of his face.    

It’s this fresh outlook and a hunger to subvert expectations that sets Shortall apart, winning him a new generation of music fans unbeholden to any one scene, alongside champions across radio and media like Gilles Peterson, Sian Eleri, Jamz Supernova, Deb Grant, KCRW , KEXP and many more.