If you look at the Italo Disco and Italo Dance movement with a different angle, then you will discover that there are a few producers or producer teams that are responsible for 75% of all records. They used different names, different groups and different project names. We will take out some of the biggest names which had the biggest success. Some producers had a contract with a label but most of them were freelance. This means that they created new music and projects and tried to get them at a label. This also the reason that some names appear at so many different labels. We can see i.e. Nicolosi songs at Third Label, Discomagic, Merak Music, Out Records, Baby Records and High Energy Label. Another example is Giancarlo Pasquini who founded A.Beat-C Records with Alberto Contini in 1990 but he also did a lot of work and production for the Time Records and Flea Record label in 1989 - 1992.
Mauro Farina - Giuliano Crivellente
Aka the Godfathers of Italo disco. They started in 1984 with their new built recording studio The Factory Sound Studio. In the beginning they produced several tracks for the il Discotto labels but in 1984 they teamed up with Giacomo Maiolini and started Time Records, a label distributed by Discomagic. The sound of Time Records gained success in Europe and Japan.
In 1988 they decided to be independent from Giacomo Maiolini and started working for several labels like Flea Records, Radiorama Productions and their own Asia Records. Giacomo Maiolini went on with Time Records and asked Giancarlo Pasquini, the frontman of the band Aleph, to produce new tracks. Giancarlo did this for about one year and then left Time Records to start together with Alberto Contini (the former A&R manager of Discomagic) his own company called A.Beat-C Records.
Back to Mauro and Giuliano. They noticed that the Time Records tracks were very popular in Japan and South East Asia and moved their focus to that specific market. Most of the tracks became uptempo (more than 125 BPM) and with funny lyrics and hooks. One of those tracks hit the right spot in Japan in 1989: under the name King Kong & The DJ'ungle Girls they created "Boom boom dollar" which was a million seller in the Far East. After four years of making music for the Asian market they also wanted to explore new areas. This new area was the Euro dance scene. New labels like 21st Century Records, One Way records and Union Records produced a lot of Euro dance tracks from 1993 - 2000. All the new labels resorted under the new company name SAIFAM. 21st Century records was very popular in the UK and the Spanish region Alicante-Valencia in the mid 90s, together with other high in BPM dance tracks coming out of Italy. The Spaniards called this music style Makkina or Maquina, the style exists today but is totally different from the style that was popular in the mid 90s.
On a lot of Farina - Crivellente records from 1988 - 1992 you also see the name of Florian Fadinger, just like in the F.C.F. productions which stands for Farina-Crivellente-Fadinger. Florian is a guy from Germany who was responsible for the promotion and business deals for the team, we was not so much involved with the music production. Before he joined Farina - Crivellente he was active for Cruisin' Records and Flea Productions. Florian left SAIFAM around 1993 when Farina - Crivellente started the new labels like 21st Century and One Way Records.
Roberto Turatti - Miki Chieregato
These guys worked together with singer/composer Thomas Beecher Hooker (Tom Hooker) and created high quality Italo sound. Their most famous project was Den Harrow. After Roberto and Miki already had two Den Harrow hits in 1983 with a different singer (Chuck Rolando) the new American composer/singer Tom Hooker joined them and took over this Den Harrow project, the song "Future Brain" became an epic instant hit. From 1985 - 1990 they made a lot of singles and 3 albums with the Den Harrow project.
Other hits they created are Joe Yellow - "Lover to lover", Jock' Hattle - "Crazy Family", Albert One - "Heart on fire", Eddy Huntington - "USSR", Paul Lekakis - "Boom boom boom", Fred Ventura - "The years" and many many more.
We already referred to the high quality sound. When you listen close to those tracks from Turatti & Chieregato and bear in mind that they were made in the 80s, you'll find that the sound quality and mixing techniques are excellent. Together with good voices like that of Tom Hooker it was the basis for an international breakthrough of the Italo disco sound, but not considered by many as Italo style, but more like contemporary pop dance music from the 80s.
Creating new sounds so also the new approach to music. A nice story is the recording for the Turbo diesel song for Albert One. In the song you can hear the horns of several cars Alberto is naming. The sound of each car was record "live" at different car dealers in and around Milano.
In 1989 Roberto and Miki split up. Roberto Turatti joined Mario Natale and Silvio Melloni to start the NTM production team. They did a lot of Italo house projects and in the 90s Roberto produced some dance tracks and started a new label called Definitiva Records. Miki did after the split up some freelance work for different labels. He now lives in the US and making music again with Tom Hooker, some tracks can be heared and seen on www.youtube.com.
Fulvio Zafret - Claudio Zennaro - Sergio Portaluri
Fulvio Zafret is from the east northern part of Italy- Udine. He is a producer and studio technician who recorded a lot of Italian artists (Ron, Lucio Battisti, Pino Daniele, Mango). In 1987 he worked for a year in the famous Rimini Studio's from Mario Flores, where he recorded a.o. Sabrina Salerno. His started in late 1987 his own Palace Recording Studio which was the basis for many hits to come. In the>80s and 90s he worked for Expanded Music with groups like Afrika
Bambaataa and Atahualpa. Success in the 90s came with his Plastika label, everbody knows from that time Eins Zwei Polizei from Modo. Nowadays he is the owner of the Urban Recording Studio.
Sergio Portaluri started in 1985 writing and composing for Keepon Music (a.o. Carrara - "SOS Bandido"), X-Energy Records (a.o. Green Olives) and then in the 90s for DFC Records (a.o. Afrika Bambaataa).
Claudio Zennaro started producing and DJ-ing in the late 80s, early 90s. Well known tracks from his hand is the group Atahualpa (DFC Records). Together with Portaluri and Zafret they created the Plastika label sound. His alias is Einstein Dr. Deejay ("Automatik sex", "Elektro woman").
Aldo Martinelli - Fabrizio Gatto
Formed together the groups Martinelli and Doctor's Cat. Female lead vocalist and co-writer was often Simona Zanini. In 1993 Fabrizo Gatto started under the pseudonym Wondercat a new company called Dancework. The labels resorting under Dancework are a.o. Volumex, Welcome, Blackbeard and Mordred Records. This label had success with the group Gam Gam.
Aldo Martinelli returned to the music business in 2011 together with Simona Zanini.
Peter and Paul Micioni
Two brothers living and working in Rome, Pietro and Paolo (in English Peter and Paul). Projects they produced involve Traks,
G ary Low, Twilight, Mike Francis, Gazebo, Easy Going and Jamie Dee. Their names are not so famous to some but with the projects in which they were involved they've sold more than 10 million records worldwide!
Davide Zambelli and Walter Verdi
Producers for the famous American Disco label, they worked on projects like Scotch, P.Lion, Panorama, Tenere and Brian Auger. This label was based in Northern Italy in Bergamo and is nowadays still a record shop.
Luciano Ninzatti - Stefano Pulga
One of the pioneer duo's of italo Disco. At an early stage, end of the 70s they joined and made big bombers like Kano, Pink Project. Stefano Pulga is still making music on his own label but it's more jazz influenced than disco or dance. In projects like the B-Project, Pink Project or Disco Project they often worked together with technician Massimo Noe and musician Matteo Bonsanto.
Robyx -Roberto Zanetti
Robyx or Roby X had big success in the 80s under the name Savage, his real name is Roberto Zanetti. In his own studio the Casablanca Recording Studio in San Carlo (near Massa/Carrara in Tuscany, Italy) he made dozens of tracks for the Discomagic labels. After the decline of the Italo Disco style in 1988 he focused on different projects involving Eurobeat (Euro Energy label), Italo House (Out Records and Discomagic label) and Italo Dance (he started early 90s the famous DWA label = Dance World Attack). DWA brought new
success with artists like Corona, Alexia and Ice MC. Nowadays he's still producing for Italian artists like Zucchero. In some productions he worked together with Francesco Bontempi (aka Lee Marrow) and Francesco Alberti who did a lot of (re)mixes for Roberto.
Lino & Pino Nicolosi
Brothers from the Nicolosi family joined with singers and composers Rosanna Nicolosi (their sister), Barbara Addoms and Dora Carofiglio and created the atmospheric Nicolosi sound. Valerie Dore, Alba, Susanne Meals and Ranko became instant hits. In the 90s they produced a lot of Hi NRG/Eurobeatforthe Discomagic company. Nowadays they are completely into jazz music, producing, playing and recording with big success.
Giacomo Maiolini
Giacomo Maiolini is now the boss of the Time Records company but he started is career back in 1983 when he co-produced the track "Let me trouble" by Deborah Haslam at Crash Records together with Mauro Farina, Pierre Ferroldi (aka DJ Pierre) and Gianfranco Bortolotti. It was an idea as a try out and led to some success. He then decided to start his' own record company called Time Records and signed Farina/Crivellente as the main producers for his label. In 1984 they opened their offices in Brescia. Big success came with Time records release number 15: Aleph - "Fly to me". Licensed to the Japanese Alfa company they sold more than 1 million copies of this record. This opened up new possibilities, not only the Japanese market was important but also the
domestic Italian market became a new target. Next to Time Records he started the Time label. The Time label was more focused on house dance music and did very well around the world, especially in the UK. USURA - "Open your mind" and Jinny's "Keep warm" sold both more than 600.000 copies around the world. Giacomo understood that for a good promotion you need airplay by the radiostations, so he teamed up with the number one radiostation Radio Deejay to promote the music from his Time label. It resulted in the RadioDeeJay compilations which sold easily 200.000 copies in Italy alone. In the 90s he had two playing fields: Time Records for the Japanese market scoring a lot of hits like Maio & Co -"Dark in the night" and the Time label for the European and Italian market. Unfortunately Time Records is now minimized in producing and creating music, the Time label still exists but is doing more digital releases and international stuff.
Graziano Pegoraro
Italian music producer and composer, still active in music production. Well known hits are the Miko Mission songs, R.Bais, Silver Pozzoli, Taffy, Loopside and Ray Foster. In the 90s he produced Ava & Stone, Mato Grosso and T42 a.o. Nowadays he is still active as a music producer.
Gianfranco Bortolotti
He started Media records in 1986 but before he did production work with Giacomo Maioiini (a.o. Gino Latino) and Mauro Farina. At first he and his team created Italo Disco for his label Media Records but after a year in 1987 they switched to the Italo house sound. The 49-ers - "Touch me"
was a big hit. After this he scored success with the group Cappella from 1988 - 1996. In 1996 he decided to go in new musical direction and created the BXR label. This label was a crossover form dance and hardstyle house music. In the 90s Media Records was one of the important Italian music labels. In the 2000s new success came with Gigi d' Agostino, Mauro Picotto, Prezioso and Mario Piu on the W/BXR label. Sadly in 2006 Media Records closed down due to the economic situation and in 2010 the catalogue was sold to the German ZYX company who has now the publishing rights.
Marco Tansini
One of the early pioneers of Italo Disco. We already see him appear on the Goody Music label in 1980 in projects like the Midnight Gang and Peter Jacques Band where he played guitar parts and is responsible for some lyrics. In the early 80s he is involved in projects like Valerie Dore (The Legend LP), Diana Barton, John Ryel. Nowadays he is the owner of a recording studio and plays more classic guitar stuff. He usually worked together with Renato Cantele, the studio technician of the Stone Castle Recording Studio in Carimate.
Celso Valli
Consider him as one of the founders of the Italo Disco scene, he started making music in 1970 (!). In the period 1978-1981 he created classic tracks like Macho, Azoto, The Passengers and Tantra. In the 80s he was responsible for hits like Raf-"Self control", Matia Bazar- "Ti sento", Canton -"Sleepwalking", Sandy Marton - "Camel by camel/Exotic and erotic", Taffy - "I love my radio" and many more. Later on he created and produced more Italian songs for artists like Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini, Vasco Rossi, Andrea Bocelli, Matia Bazar, Miguel Bose and Raff.
Gaznevada (Ciro Pagano - Stefano Mazzavillani) / Datura
Succesfull in the 80s and 90s with the group Gaznavada. In the 90s under the name Datura. Gaznevada was more a new wave approach to the Italo Disco style and Datura is more a hardcore/trance style. They worked for labels like EMI, Italian Records, Irma and Trance Records.
Tony Carrasco
An American DJ responsible for the "disco" sound in the Italo Disco Records. In the early 80s he worked on many projects like Klein & MBO, Plastic Mode, BB & Band, R-l-S, Diana Est, Miko Mission, The Breakout Crew and Bizzy & co to name a few.
Alessandro Zanni - Stefano Cundari
Famous because of their label Memory Records. They produced a lot of Italo disco hits and artists like Koto, Ken Laszlo, Baby's Gang, Swan, Mike Cannon, Argentina and Alan Ross. Due to the new house music scene the label had to close down in 1989. New house productions were started with the MCE record label. The label Memory Records was an idea of Anfrando Maiola (aka Koto) and Stefano Cundari, they worked together on a track called Chinese revenge which was published in 1982 on Cellophane Records (a label based in Parma, hometown of Anfrando Maiola). Later on in 1983 this track was repressed by the Memory label (also with labelcode SCV 2202) when "businessman" Alessandro Zanni joined Cundari to set up the label.
Stefano Cundari died of cancer in 1992 and that also was the end of an era, since they just started MCE Record company after Memory Records.
Very confusing is the fact that the German record company ZYX also published all tracks from the Memory label with the same label design but with different codes. There are two ways to find out if it is an Italian or German release. Ofcourse the Italian release has got the SIAE stamp and the German ones have different codes with the LC number 7879 or LC 6350 which are not on the Italian pressing.
In 1986 Memory records also had an office in Barcelona, Spain. They published a few records in license Paul Lekakis -Boom boom boom, Tom Hooker - Looking for love, Atrium -Dr. Jeckyll.
In 1995 and 1996 there was a small revival with New Memory Records but this was not a big success so they stopped after a few releases.
Claudio Cattafesta - Sandro Oliva - Gino Caria
This was an 80s producers team that was quite invisible in those years. Strange because they made quite some excellent tracks in their own studio called The Harlequin Studio. This studio in the heart of the city of Mantova was bought by Giancarlo Pasquini and turned into the Domino Studio and The Sound & Vision Studio. The 3 guys mainly made tracks for the Memory Records and Time Records label, Sandro Oliva was also the freelance studio technician for Farina/Crivellente in the Factory Sound Studio. Famous tracks are Ken Laszlo -"Hey hey guy", "Tonight", "Don't cry", Magyka - "I know magica", Alesis -"Steppin'up", Alan Ross -" Valentino mon amour", "Last wall" and many many more. Ken Laszlo- "Hey hey guy" was first offered to Severo Lombardoni from Discomagic but he did not find it interesting enough for his labels so they went to Zanni/Cundari from Memory Records. It turn out to be a million seller, 1 million copies worldwide.
In 1990 Gino Caria and Sandro Oliva sold their studio to Giancarlo Pasquini who turned it into an Eurobeat temple producing Hi NRG tracks for the Japanese market. Sandro Oliva became a freelance producer and technician for the studio and Gino Caria still did a lot of writing and singing for the Hi NRG labels of Giancarlo Pasquini and Albert Contini. But besides working for A.Beat-C Records he also worked for Time Records, Flea Records and Vibration Records.
Gino Caria unfortunately died of AIDS in 1999. His strong voice can be heard on various powerful Eurobeat tracks.
Also Claudio Cattafesta died too early in 1987 of cancer in his arm. He was well known for his guitar playing.
Sandro Oliva is still working as a producer for the Hi NRG label GoGo's Music together with Alessandra Gatti aka Domino.
La Bionda
Success came already in 1977 for the La Bionda borthers (Carmelo and Michelangelo), they scored an international hit with DD Sound - "Cafe" and "1,2,3,4...gimme some more". Under their own name came the famous hit One for one for me. In the following years they produced a lot of albums and artists under their own and other's names. In 1983 they started working together with the Righeira brothers (Michael and Johnson) and they wrote "Vamos a la playa" and "No tengo dinero" for them. In the mid 80s they worked on film soundtracks, i.e. Bud Spencer and Terence Hill and they also wrote music for the cartoon series Calimero. The family business is still operative and they own the Logic Studio where many international artists record and recorded their songs.
Claudio Cecchetto
Already a well known DJ and talent scout in the early 80's with the hitsong "Gioca-jouer" he jumped on the Italo Disco train in 1984/5 with an Yugoslavian artist, Sandy Marton, with which he already made the song "OK Run" under the name M-Basic in 1983. The first release "People from Ibiza" of his new label Ibiza Records became an instant summer hit in Europe. From 1985 - 1988 Ibiza Records dominated the Italian TV shows and charts with artists like Sabrina, Via Verdi, Tracy Spencer, Taffy and Sandy Marton. Ibiza Records was successful abroad, but the main market at that time was Italy itself. The reason for his strong position in Italy was the cooperation with the Italian TV station Canale 5. The TV show DeeJay Television and later on the radiostation Radio DeeJay were the perfect carriers for promoting his artists in Italy (and abroad).
Claudio decided not to ride the House music wave but to focus on Italian Pop music. In 1992 he was the talent scout for the group 883 (with Max Pezzali) which became very popular in Italy.
Dario Raimondi - Alvaro Ugolini
These two guys started in Rome the X-Energy label in 1982; their first record Advance - "Take me to the top" did well in Europe and the USA. The third release Fun Fun - "Happy station" was not an instant hit but when Dutch Remixer/producer Ben Liebrand created the scratch version for his Italo Remix Vol. 1 project, it became a world wide hit. In 1988 they switched from the Italo Disco sound to the Italo House Sound and again in 1993 switched to the Euro Dance/ltalo Dance sound. The biggest hit for the Italo House Sound was Secchi feat. Orlando Johnson - "I say yeah" and the biggest hits in the Italo Dance period were songs for Whigfield, Ann Lee and In-grid. Besides the X-Energy label they also focused on different dance sounds with labels like Extreme and D-Vision (artists like Benny Benassi).
Sergio dall'Ora
Living and working in the Brescia area, Sergio started in the early 80s with Hanguria/Havana Productions, which records were distributed by Discomagic. In the 90s he worked for Time Records and Flea Records, doing a lot of Hi NRG tracks for the Japanese market many times together with Stefano Castagna
Andrea Leonardi - Bratt Sinclaire
Started as a heavy metal artist playing guitar and producing the Italian cultband, from his frend Alberto Contini,called Bulldozer. In 1991 he was asked by Alberto Contini, his friend and the former A&R manager of Discomagic, to join the new Hi NRG Eurobeat label called A.Beat-C. So he teamed up with Alberto and Giancarlo Pasquini (aka Dave Rodgers, leadsinger of the group Aleph). For the Japanese market he chose the English name Bratt Sinclaire which is an analog of the character Bret Sinclaire played by Roger Moore in the 70s TV show "The Persuaders". The first success in Japan came with the track King & Queen from the group King & Queen. From 1991 - 1995 he made more than 200 songs of which a lot were covered by Japanese artists (V6, Namie Amuro, Max, Hinoky Team) in the Japanese language selling millions of copies. In 1994 he built his own studio in Milano (which in fact was the old studio of Massimo Noe from Baby Records) and became a freelance producer for A.Beat-C. In the end of 1995 he decided to leave A.Beat-C and teamed up with Clara Moroni and Laurent Gelmetti who left Time Records. The 3 Eurobeat artists started a new label called Delta Records signing a deal with the Japanese Avex company who is responsible for the Eurobeat mania in Japan. New creativity flourished and the 3 stars created hundreds of tracks. In 2006 Andrea wanted to go into a new musical direction and started his own company called SinclaireStyle. He is still producing Eurobeat music and is working together with Fausto Guio (aka Dr. Dope and composer for A.Beat-C Records) and Dejo (Maurizio de Jorio, aka D-Essex, Casanova, Derreck Simons, Niko).
Laurent Gelmetti - Laurent G. Newfield
Former studio technician of the Factory Sound studio from Farina/Crivellente where he started in early 1986 replacing Sandro Oliva. After Farina/Crivellente left in 1989 and Giancarlo Pasquini also left Time Records in 1990, he became responsible for a lot of Hi NRG bombers at Time Records (De Niro, Virgin, Lisa Johnson, Gipsy & Queen, Danny Keith, Linda Ross, Frank Torpedo, Lou Grant). He created a "new Eurobeat sound" and made a lot of records in the period from 1991 -1994 (approx. 8 records each month!), a lot of the female vocals in this period were taking care of his then-wife Clara Moroni. After this extensive period he left Time Records and became for a short time the Musical director for Media Records in Brescia. This didn't last long because in 1995 he joined forces with Andrea Leonardi and his then ex-wife Clara Moroni. They created the Hi NRG label Delta Records (based in Monza) which signed a deal with the big Japanese music company Avex. In 2006 Laurent left Delta, just as Andrea Leonardi, and is now a freelance music producer of different music styles.
Giancarlo Pasquini - Aleph - Dave Rodgers
Under the name of Aleph he reached big success in Japan with Fly to me (1 million copies sold). The "aggressive" Hi NRG sound became his trademark, heavy synths, pulsting basslines and strong vocals. After Farina/Crivellente left Time Records he made some new productions (Aleph, Chester,Mike Hammer) for Time Records label owner Giacomo Maiolini for a period of about 1 year as a freelance. In this period he also did a lot of productions for Flea Records (Coy McCoy, Linda Martin, Thomas & Shubert). In 1990 he joined with the former A & R manager of Discomagic, Alberto Contini, and they started the label A.Beat-C Records. This label had a focus on the Japanese market and did very well by signing a million deal with the Japanese company Avex. Avex started in 1990 with the Super Euro Beat compilation series which contained tracks from Time Records, A.Beat-C and other Eurobeat labels. The series still exist and has gone up to volume 220. At first Giancarlo bought the studio complex of the Harlequin Studio (see Sandro Oliva-Claudio Cattafesta-Gino Caria) in Mantova and turned it into the Sound & Vision Studio and the Domino Studio (after the name of his then-wife Domino aka Alessandra Gatti or Mirka). Being succesfull meant a good cashflow and he decided to build his own studio complex just outside of Mantova. This studio was equipped with the best possible music gear so they could produce and make high quality tracks. Together with his business partner Alberto Contini they not only made Eurobeat music but also classical and rock music. He still creates and produces Eurobeat/ Hi NRG Music for the Japanese market under his own name or under his artist name Dave Rodgers.
Pierluigi Giombini
Born in Roma as a son of a musical father who played in different orchestra's. He studied classical music and you can hear this in his compositions. Famous international success came with Gazebo - "I like Chopin" (plus album) and Ryan Paris - "Dolce vita" in the 80s and in the 2000s he made a comeback with Web - "Lovin' times" and other hits. He scored with his compositions top 10 hits all over the world and sold more than 12 million records. Lives now in Germany and still works as a music producer.
Gazebo - Paul Mazzolini
Paul Mazzolini is the real name of Gazebo. When he was brought up he lived in many countries since his father was an Italian diplomat. He settled in Rome in 1975 and decided that he wanted to become a musician. First he played in different jazz and rock bands. In 1981 he met Paolo Micioni and together they made the song Masterpiece which became a hit in the European and Asian charts. In 1983 Paul signed a deal with Baby Records. The first single from his first album turned out to be a bomber. "I like Chopin" sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, reaching the first chart position in many countries like Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switserland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Canada, Hong Kong, Portugal, Japan, Singapore and many other top 10s like the Holland and the UK charts.
His second album "Telephone mama" from 1984 had a different music style but also topped the worldwide charts, well known hits are "Telephone mama" and "For Anita".
Unfortunately he had to stop his music career in 1985 because he had to join the military in Italy. After his military service he founded Lunatic Records. He produced other artists and made two albums called Univision and Rainbow tales in 1987 and 1988. In 1989 he made the album Dolce vita with the hit "Sweet life/Dolce vita" which is a remake of the Ryan Paris songs which he co-wrote. Beginning of the 90s he chose a different music style, more pop-like. Nowadays he still owns his music company and record label producing, writing, singing for his own and other' s projects.
Sandy Dian
Real name is Stefano Dian. He is an Italian studio technician and producer, active in the music business since 1983. As a freelance producer you can find his name on many different labels, he used to work a lot with Piero Fidelfatti in his own Sandy's Recording Studio.
Kirlian Camera - Angelo Bergamini
Angelo Bergamini founded the group Kirlian Camera together with Simona Buja in spring 1980. The first EP which was released in 1981 by the independent Italian Records label was a small success, it sold almost 6000 copies. After this success Angelo started to work together with Paul Sears (became later songwriter and producer for Whigfield), Ugo Solenghi and Stefano Cundari (co-founder of Memory records) at the Hipnosis project. This band got help from Koto (Anfrando Maiola) and made a few singles and complete album on Memory Records. The Vangelis cover " Pulstar" sold very good worldwide. But this project didn't last long, Angelo decided to work again on new Kirlian Camera material. He signed a record deal the major Virgin company. Together with Depeche Mode producer John Fryer he makes the album "Das schwarze Denkmal" with the single "Eclipse". After this album Angelo switched to the more punk/avant-garde music producing many albums like "Todesengel" and "K-Pax". The band still exists but the sound is still more dark and new wave-ish.
Claudio Accatino - Federico Rimonti
Two guys from the town Alessandria in Italy they started in 1982 with producing and composing music. In the mid and late 80s we see their names appear on different Farina/Crivellente productions. Claudio Accatino co-wrote a.o. the mega success hit "Boom Boom dollar" from King Kong & The D' jungle Girls. But also artists like Chris, Mela, Tatjana, Laurie and Ciao Ciao, are well known projects from that time. In 1993 they founded the Live Music company and focused on the Japanese market. Live Music and Hi NRG Attack are their record labels producing a music style that is closely linked to the Para Para Dance style from Japan. Besides Hi NRG music they also did a lot of Italo Disco and Dance records (Larabell, Chester,Radiorama, DJ Black, Maddy Laine) and even tunes for Italian TV stations like the RAI Television. Accatino and Rimonti still make music for the Japanese market.
Riccardo Ballerini
He worked together with Turatti & Chieregato for the Baby Records labels in the 80s. You can find his name on Den Harrow, Paul Lekakis, Albert One and Eddy Huntington productions. In the 90s he did some writing and production work for the High Energy label from Lombardoni (Glenn Scott, Susy B, Ian Lex).
Rino Facchinetti - Ryn' O
Team member of the group Styloo, you can hear him sing together with Alberto Signorini and under different artist names like Meet point - "The key of the night" or Rene -"Don't hurt me" (both Discomagic, Ryn'O - "Gigolo" (WMB Productions)). In 1988 he became composer, writer, singer and producer for many tracks on the Discomagic labels. His artist name in the 90s became Ian Lex and he recorded under this name and his own tracks for Severo Lombardoni and Farina/Crivellente.
Stefano Castagna
Started his career in the late 80s/early 90s first together with Sergio dall'Ora. First producing tracks for record labels like Flea Records and Time Records. Then he switched to his own label Double Records which later became SCP Music, producing powerful Hi NRG tracks for the Asian and Japanese market together with his wife Evelina Somenzi and Crsitian Codonotti.
Fabrizio Baldoni- Bruno Rosselini
Well known success was the Finzy Kontini project on American Disco. Later on they had their own label with Finzy Records and Stil Novo based in Monza, near Milano.
Maurizio Bassi
By far his biggest success came with Baltimora. At a very young age this musician already wrote music for the group The Passengers and later on for Keepon Music (Christine, Carrara). In the 90s he wrote some good tracks for the Farina/Crivellente'sSAIFAM labels (Radiorama, Beat-Dream). He worked at lot with the American writer/vocalist Naimy Hackett. In the 2000s even the American group Destiny's Child used one of the songs from Hackett/Bassi on their album called "Nasty girl".
Giancarlo Meo
Producer living and working in Rome. Involved in projects like Kasso, Vivien Vee, Easy Going, Claudio Checcetto and Capricorn.You can consider him as one of the founding father of the Italo Disco wave in the early 80s. After his musician and producing career he became the boss of Universo in Rome, a publishing company. In the 90s his company scored success with a.o. the Hitmania compilation albums, many sequences selling over 200.000 copies in Italy. Hit compilations always sold more copies then one song in Italy, success in Italy depends largely on how many compilations your song is published.
Danilo Bastoni-Dino Melotti-Gianni Salvatori
Producers trio who founded their own recordlabel called BIVIS records (so you can guess where those letters stand for) which was distributed by Alabianca in Modena. Their productions also appear on Full time, il Discotto, Cruisin', Flea and Discomagic labels. BMS records existed from 1986-1992.
Classic Italo hits for the The Italian Boys, but the huge success in Asia came with the project of Mr. Zivago. The album CD "Tell by your eyes sold" almost 1 million in the Far East. They also wrote songs for Italian pop artists Laura Pausini and Nek.
Steve Eden and Paul James - Stefano Gentili and Paolo Giannini
Unknown by most Italo Disco fans, but they did a lot of production, writing and singing on many records. Much of their work is still uncovered. They have a strong connection with Studio Emme in Firenze (Studio M in Florence) and its owner Marzio Benelli.
Marzio Benelli
Owner and founder of Studio Emme in Firenze where he produced dozens of tracks in the Italo Disco era. You can find his name at records from the Fuzzdance, Sensation, Blow Up Disco and Discomagic labels. Besides Italo Disco he also was involved in projects with Italian artists like Litfiba and Marco Masini.
Aldo de Scalzi
Producer from Genova (Genua), owner of Studio G. in Genova (Studio Genova) together with his brother Vittorio de Scalzi. He is responsible for tracks like Casco - "Cybernetic love", Art of love - "Looking through the night", Moments - "The station", Hank Shostak - "Don't tell me" and many more.
Ruggero Penazzo
Owner and founder of Keepon Music. This label did not produce that many records but had quite a few names and
musicians on its labels that did many nice tracks. We can see the first cooperation between Fulvio Zafret and Sergio Portaluri, Walter Bassani from Meccano did a lot of work and we see Maurizio Bassi and Naimy Hackett in quite a few tracks. Before Keepon Music Ruggero did some productions of another DDD (Drogheria Di Drugolo) label called Eyes Records.
Julio Ferrarin
Producer and composer from Rome. Worked for the Memory Records label, X-Energy and High Energy label for Discomagic. Worked a lot with the "Kylie Gane" voice (real name Leonie Gane) and has a characteristic style that resembles the Stock Aitken & Waterman sound. Productions: Dan Eller - "Don't say goodbye", Tina Gabriel - "If you say you love me", Tony Turn - "Cherry cherry", Kylie Gane - "Bohemien", Eddy Skynn - "It's a lie", Argentina - "Let's all dance", Baby Baby songs and many more.
Rene d'Herin
Producer from Torino and label owner. Famous productions: Mono Band - "Ghost town", Mono Band -" Mr. Crusoe", Red Gang - "Fly to America" and Art Fine - "Dark silence" and. Max Coveri - "One more time".
Marcello Catalano
Owner of the Gianburrasca studio in Corbetta near Milano. He's actually a studio technician who also produced and sung a lot of Italo Disco Hits. His pseudonym is for projects like Klapto, Marc Line, Travel Sex, Telex news, Air Mail, etc. In the 90s a lot of artists recorded their tracks like Gam Gam, CO.RO, Taleesa, Jovanotti, Datura, Molella, Walter Bassani and Fred Ventura.
Massimo Gabutti
As a member of the group Phaex he scored some success with the track "Talk about". In the 90s he started together with his business partner Luciano Zucchet the Bliss Corporation: a new music company that did a lot of tracks for Propio Records and later on their own labels like Skooby Records, In Progress and National DJ Event. Huge success came with the Eiffel 65 project. The track Blue together with that funny videoclip (the blue guy is actually called Zorotl and also made his own "solo" single) climbed the worldcharts.
Sfefano Secchi
Already active in the 80s for Many Records and Discomagic (Larabel) started his own label, Propio Records in the 90s
Tom Hooker
His real name his Thomas Beecher Hooker and he was born in the USA. He got his education at the Ecole International de Geneve (Switserland) and got in this way "introduced" in the European disco scene. He released his first single called Flip Over in 1980. The second single was called "Toccami". In 1982 Marco Trani mixed and produced his first 12inch called "Talk with your body" and "Come back home" was produced by Claudio Donato. In 1985 Tom joined Roberto Turatti and Miki Chiergato and that turned out to be a hit trio. Together they are responsible for hits of Den Harrow, Eddy Huntington and Tom Hooker. In 1991 Tom started his own project with the group Elastic Band. In 1997 he returned to the USA were he started an artist career under the pseudonym Thomas Barbey extraordinary photographic art,
Franco Rago & Gigi Farina
They deserve the cult status for their work in the early 80s. Productions like Expansives - "Life with you", 'Lectric Workers records, the Atelier Folie records, Decadance - "On and on" and Cariocas - "Batida" were way ahead of their time. In 1987 they produced their last record and they are unfortunately not involved in music making business anymore.
Davide Riva & Larry Pignagnoli
These guys are responsible for hits like Whigfield, Ann Lee and other hits on the X-Energy labels. Larry is already a musician and producer since the early days of 1983 responsible for many hits on the X-Energy label. His alias is Abacab which you sometimes can see on the labels. Davide combined his skills in the 90s to form a strong production team. They now are the people behind Off Limits productions and scored in the 2000s many hits with projects like Benny Benassi.
Luigi Stanga
Italian producer from Brescia. In the 80s he produced hits like the Hot Cold project and Mark - Dreamland (Discomagic label). In 1992 he founded LED Records riding on the wave the upcoming Eurodance style. In 1996 he also tried his luck with the Eurobeat market in Japan. Together with Gino Caria he created the Vibration label which produced some excellent high energy tracks. But after some years Gino Caria unfortunately died and he only made a few new tracks for Vibration Records.
Pieradis Rossini
Former studio technician who gained succes with projects on the il Discotto label, then after the bankruptcy of il Discotto he did some work for Discomagic (a.o. London Productions) but joined Gianfranco Bortolotti in 1989 at his Media Records company. In 1992 he was one of the founders of the DJ Movement label, a label that scored well around the world with hits like House Traffic - "Everyday of my life" and the Spacemaster records.
Paola Peroni
One of the few women that produced a lot of Italo tracks. Her first records was on the Discoland label, Akire - "Last train" in 1989. As a musical producer she worked together with Pieradis Rossini on many DJ Movement records. Later in the 90s she started her own music company called Intercool. She's responsible for hits like The Ryders - "Bang" and Bacon Popper - "Free" and many, many more.
Pierre Feroldi
Also known as DJ Pierre. This DJ already started his musical career in the early 80s. As a DJ he knew what the sound should sound like. You can find him in projects together with Gianfranco Bortolotti and later on as a producer for many Italian Style projects.
Roberto Gallo Salsotto
Formed together with his brother Enzo the duo The Toy Boys ("Different generation" on Ibiza Records), In the early 90s he became a music producer and put his hands on many Eurodance hits like DJ Dado, Paps 'n Skar, Miranda and D.E.A.R. Formed together with Maurizio Braccagni the remixers duo MBRG who did a lot of remixes for different artists.
Maurizio Braccagni
Italian producer from Milano. He worked together with Roberto Gallo Salsotto under the name MBRG who did a lot of remixes in the 90s. In the early 2000s he scored (also Italy) big hits under his alias DJ Lhasa, a popular song in the Italian language is "Giulia". Maurizio is also a DJ and in 2006 he started his own label Mabra Records focused on more Italo hardstyle music.
Giorgio and Andrea Prezioso
Many times you will only find the name Giorgio Prezioso on record labels or sleeves, but the Prezioso act is in fact the two brothers Giorgio and Andrea. The guy performing in video's and on stage is mostly Giorgio Prezioso. In the early 90s Giorgio won the DJ championship in Italy and is reknown because of his scratching techniques. But he started producing together with his brother commercial projects for Massimo Gabutti on In Progress Records and more rave projects on No Colors and Trancebeat Records. In the late 90s the Prezioso brothers had big commercial success under their own name, together with the singer Mr. Marvin (Alessandro Moschini) they reached the top 10 of the European charts with different tracks ("Let me stay", "Voices").
Gigi d'Agostino
His real name is Luigino Celestino di Agostino and he's originally from Torino. He made his first tracks in 1993 for the Discomagic label (i.e. Voyager - "City of light") but switched in 1995 to the BXR/Media records label of Gianfranco Bortolotti. He gained European success with his crossover style between pop dance and a kind of hardstyle trance. He's still producing today for his own record company and travels around the globe as a DJ.
Molella
His full name is Maurizio Molella. He's a DJ and producer and got his introduction on Radio Deejay in the 90s, first a mixer and then as a producer. In 1990 he made his first record under his own name (Je Vois) and then did many freelance projects a s producer. Today he's still a producer and DJ.
Fargetta
Just like Mollela Mario or Marino Fargetta gained fame in Italy as a DJ working for Radio DeeJay. He was the mixer of the good selling DeeJay Time compilations in the 90s. But besides DJ-ing and mixing he also made a lot of tracks under his own name and different other projects. Today he's still a producer and DJ.
CO.RO
CO.RO stands for Emanuele Cozzi and Maurizio Rossi. Both very talented producers, Maurizio started his career as a DJ producing Italo House tracks for a.o. X-Energy Records when he joined Emanule to form the duo CO.RO and made hits for the Propio Records label of Stefano Secchi. After CO.RO Maurizio worked as a freelance producer and Emanule formed with Davide Scarpulla the new group Paps 'n Skar.
Roby Arduini
Roby Arduini or Roberto Arduini started in 1983 as a musical producer together with Mauro Farina. He's partly responsible for many hits on the il Discotto, Discomagic an Lombardoni Publishings labels. As a freelance producer and musician we worked in the late 80's on different projects, often for Gianfranco Bortolotti. His musical spectrum is very broad, he made Italo Disco, Italo House and Super Euro Beat tracks.
Giorgio Spagna
Giorgio is the brother of Ivana Spagna. We wrote many tracks under his own name or his aliases Theo Spagna and Samedi. Besides writing the hits for his sister he also wrote many Euro Beat songs and Euro Dance and pop music tracks.
Gigi Maini
Not known by many Italo fans but he played a large role in many productions for the Discomagic labels. He was in groups like Mex and Anthony's Games and worked together with Raff Todesco and Daniele Losi.
Mario Boncaldo
The man behind the Klein & MBO projects. MBO stands for Mario Boncaldo Orchestra. He is one of the earliest musicians that made the foundations of Italo disco. He worked together with many other artists and DJ's like Tony Carrasco (in the Plastic Mode project). The Klein & MBO record Dirty talk is considered as one of the first records with the (Chicago) House sound.
Claudio Coliino
Still active as a music producer, he made a broad range of musical projects form dance to classical and latin beats. He's man behind a.o. Premio Nobel and the Sueno Latino projects.
Matteo Bonsanto
Freelance producer active since the early 80s. He was involved in projects like Kano, Sabrina, Tina, Sara Carlson, Sandy Marton, Dhuo and Francesco Salvi. In the early 80s he participated in the Pink Project (B-Project or Disco Project) together with Stefano Pulga and Luciano Ninzatti.
Max Moroldo - Massimiliano Moroldo
The founder of the Do It Yourself record company. With the DIY and Nitelite record label he gained huge success in the late 90s and early 2000s with projects like The Soundlovers, Regina and Happymen.
Manlio Cangelli
Producer of many hits in the 80s like Scotch - Penguins invasion, Clay Pedrini, Disco Halloween, Blue Russel and Joey Moon. Still working today in the music business with his recording studio and publishing company McHarmony.
Valerio Semplici, Mirko Limoni & Daniele Davoli
This trio gained woridfame under the name Black Box. Valerio Semplici is a clarinet teacher and was part of the la Scala Classical Orchestra in Milano. Mirko Limoni is a keyboard player who used to work for Ivana Spagna. Daniele Davoli is a DJ, also known under the name DJ Lellewel. Together they created the act Black Box in 1989 and started the Italo House movement. Sampling, piano chords and riffs plus a house beat led to numerous Italo House hits from 1989 - 1992. The success of Black Box led to the start of their own label called Groove Groove Melody. Besides Black Box they scored hits with other artists like Lonnie Gordon, Bit Machine and Libra.
Raff Todesco
Italian producer and label owner. Most of his productions can be found at Fly Music, Ram Records and RARE Records Raff Todesco Records). His most significant productions are Video - "Somebody", Wish Key - "Last summer" and Time - "Shaker shake". He still is a record producer.
Kynsha and Vimi (or Violante)
Real names Luciana Cirillo and Michele Violante. A duo that wrote many funky Italo stuff for Full Time Records and its sublabels.YouNI find them in groups like Electric Mind, Ago, Jago and Rainbow Team.
Claudio Simonetti
Musician from Roma. One of his aliases is Claude King. Already in the 70s he made and played on many early Italian dance and disco tracks like Kasso, Capricorn, Easy Going and Simonetti Horror project. He also created music for many different Italian horror movies at his Acquario Studio in Rome.
DJ Cerla
Real name is Gabriele Cerlini, a DJ and producer. He started in the early 90s with a heavy sound inspired by the Rotterdam techno/gabber movement. But there was still an Italian feel to it because the track like Alter Ego and DJ Cerla had melody in them. He scored worldwide hits with the project Floorfilla. He still is active in the music business mostly as a DJ and remixer.
Digital Boy
His real name is Luca Pretolesi. He is one of the frontrunners of the Italo hardstyle movement. Already in 1990 he scored hits under his name Digital Boy and in the mid 90s he founded his own label called D-Boy Records which produced some nice crossovers between hardstyle and dance. He did not made many records but he influenced many other Italian musicians. He's still active in the music scene but is now involved in hardcore/hardstyle projects.
Giorgio Dolce
Producer and songwriter of the epic Italo theme "Right by the moon" of K.Barre. But he also is responsible for a.o. the Primadonna songs.
Enzo Vallicelli - Ennio Tricomi
These guys made a lot of productions for il Discotto labels and Cruisin'Records from Modena. Ennio Tricomi his alias is Ennio
Manuel. Cruisin'gang, Max-Him, PJ Marcus and Roxanna are the projects they were involved as composers and producers.
Oderso Rubini and Luca Orioli
These guys used to work together in the 80s on many Italian projects that were more new wave influenced. They did a lot for Italian Records and the labels of Expanded Music and il Discotto. They vanished from the scene in the 90s unfortunately.
(Danny) Evans and (Tommy) Fisher
The real names of these guys are Tony Demalde and Tomasso Cariati. They are responsible for a lot of productions under the name Evans & Fisher, Tommy, Dayl and Juni G. They also worked a lot for the BMS team. They are maybe not so well known but it's worthwhile to check out which songs they've made.
Albert One - Alberto Carpani
This DJ from Pavia not only sung on a lot of tracks but he also produced many. He started as a DJ for several Discomagic compilation albums and gradually also became a producer. In 1987 he started his own label called One Records on which you can find Albert One - "Hopes and dreams", Funny Twins -"You and me" and Schiffer- "Get it right".
Max Coveri
Active as a producer and artist. His first appearance is at the FDT label with the song "One more time" and then he switched to the Farina/Crivellente stables were me made some songs together with the famous duo. In 1991 he started
his own label called World Energy Music and in the 90s he had success with the project Billy More.
Guerrino Galli and Piero Bevitori
These two guys were the owners of the famous I'Altro Mondo discotheque in Rimini. This discotheque was the home basis for many acts, most important one is the group The Creatures. But they also produced a lot of records together with Mario Flores and Sangy (Maurizio Sangineto). Think about Robert Tomasi - "When I let you down" and Bill Goins -"Lone rider".
Gianluca Bergonzi and Giancarlo Pellinghelli
These guys are also known as the Check Up Twins and JD Jaber. They worked a lot for Memory Records and its sublabel Digital Records.
Sangy - Maurizio Sangineto
Freelance producer from Vicenza who already in 1979 started as guitarist for Italian pop singer Gianna Nannini. In the early 80s he started producing for groups and artists like The Creatures, Firefly and Amanda Lear. Besides producing songs he also wrote the music for different movie soundtracks and the Italian tune for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He now works for Ideazioni, a creative marketing and PR company.
Marco Bresiani and Paolo Gemma
Producers duo that worked together with Farina/Crivellente especially for many Radiorama productions.