corto.alto + Guests 7:30pm – Saturday 21st November, Bedford Esquires corto.alto – AKA multi-instrumentalist producer, composer and performer Liam Shortall – announces his EU and UK tour in Autumn 2026. Having closed 2025 with a win for ‘Breakthrough Artist’ at the AIM Awards in London, and a triumphant sold-out show at the legendary KOKO in London, Shortall and the corto.alto live band have continued to tour throughout 2026, with over 40 shows in the US and EU in the Spring, and more US and Canada shows later this year, as well as festival appearances at We Out Here, WOMAD, Montreal Jazz Fest and many more. In parallel, the band has been releasing new music , ‘WHODIS’ in collaboration with legendary Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins, as well as their brand new single ‘THIEF’ out on the 12th of May, continuing to showcase the new frontier of corto.alto’s music. With new material on the horizon, the band will further consolidate their reputation as one of the best live bands around with a run of headline shows across Europe and the UK in Oct and Nov 2026. It’s been an intense but rewarding few years for Shortall and his corto.alto project (the stage name a nod to his Irish-Spanish heritage, translating as “short.tall” in Spanish). The release of his debut album ‘Bad With Names’ saw him nominated for the 2024 Mercury Music Prize – alongside fellow Scot and now label-mate Barry Can’t Swim and the likes of Charli xcx, Ghetts, Beth Gibbons (Portishead), Nia Archives, CMAT and more – and saw him booked to play hundreds of shows across the world, including high-profile festival performances and a sold-out UK tour that featured his ownpersonally curated 2000-capacity “Made In Glasgow” mini-festival at the city’s legendary Barrowlands Ballroom venue. 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. 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 and many more. ——– Tickets are £20 advance, on sale from 11am, Friday 15th May from Seetickets and local outlets. Online link : https://www.seetickets.com/event/corto-alto/bedford-esquires/3638311

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