Conferring titles in the music industry is a disputable process, but in a reply to the question about the king of Italo disco it may most often unquestionably be heard: Mauro Farina! A talented music maker, producer and owner of an outstanding and easily recognized voice. Mauro Farina scores over 1000 original songs, many of which being unquestionable hits o­n all the inhabitable continents, over 1500 disco projects, including Radiorama, Atrium, Joe Yellow, Fred Ventura, Albert o­ne, Alan Barry, Aleph, mr. Zivago, Ken Laszlo, Den Harrow, in whose maturing Farina either directly or indirectly participated; millions of sold copies of albums and many millions of singles! The office walls of the president of the S.A.I.F.A.M. label are abundantly decorated with "golden" discs. We will see, how Mauro Farina made his way to such a "royal" life.

Let have a closer look at the character of our narration. Mauro was born o­n December 9th, presumably in 1956. His favorite sports are tennis and runs around picturesque neighborhoods of native Verona. Favorite car - Porsche. Color - black. Favorite football team - Juventus. Favorite music performers: Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Pet Shop Boys and ... Fancy! Working out music ideas takes Mauro 24 hours a day, even at the nighttime! Many of his famous hits came out, according to his own acknowledgement, literally in a few seconds (in case of being in a good mood)! Our hero's own favorite song is "To My Heart", recorded under the pseudonym "Mark Farina", which is dedicated to some anonymous woman - the object of his big romantic passion. Mauro stubbornly ignores questions about his private life. But here the topic is not the matter of heart, but of music.

Mauro became obsessed with music in the early childhood. At the age of 8 he joined the child ensemble "Albatros". In 19 Farina became the lead singer of the "Caravan" group, where he became acquainted with his future co-author and "friend of life" Guiliano Crivellente. For Caravan Mauro wrote his first song "You And Me".

In 1981 Mauro Farina and Giuliano Crivellente founded Factory Sound Studio, but the first big hit, recorded at that studio, was a famous song "Hey Hey Guy", performed by Ken Laszlo and written by Sandro Oliva. That single was sold in hundreds of thousand copies. Among other works of this group are: Pierrot's Gang "Mexico", Danny Keith "Love Me Again", Brand Image "Are You Loving?", Brand Image "Movin' Up", Paul Sharada "Florida".

In 1983 three young men of talent - Mauro Farina, Guiliano Crivellente and Giacomo Maiolini joined their effort in establishing the famous star factory of Italo Disco, Time Records. The first hit of this creative trio was the single "Funny Dancer", performed by the Atrium project. Later Time Records lit such stars as Ken Laszlo, Danny Keith, Ricky Maltese, Aleph, Fred Ventura, Albert o­ne. The song "Keep o­n Music" by Danny Keith (1985), with Farina's vocal, is considered o­ne of the most important classic Italo disco hits. Keeping to a disputable practice of Italian disco record labels, Mauro Farina recorded his voice under a huge number of projects, directly created or supported by himself: Atrium, Joe Yellow, Jock Hattle Band, Alan Barry, Styloo, Tension, Valentino, Tozzo etc. It is interesting, that some projects, like Atrium, Joe Yellow, De Niro, Danny Keith, Alan Barry, Alan Barcklay, were sung by other 2 to 5 vocalists! Ricky Maltese is indeed, say, the general name, because almost his every single song was sung by a different persons, including Gianni Coraini (Ken Laszlo). Pier Michele Bozetti (Miko Mission) showed himself also under the name of Alan Barry, besides Farina, Giorgio Conti - under Atrium, Domenico Ricchini - under Joe Yellow etc. Giancarlo Pasquini sung in the Aleph project, owner of an impressive voice, too a considerable degree suitable to that of Farina, also known as Dave Rogers. But, Mauro Farina even here could not abstain from singing a couple of songs for the "Black Out" album ("Go, Baby" and "In Your Mind"). This practice, surely, caused a great deal of confusion in the minds of Italo disco fans, but the producers, it is proper to suggest, had better reason to do so. By the way, Mauro does not cease saying that he is a producer in the first instance, and a composer and vocalist in the second.

In 1986 Mauro Farina launches his most famous and favorite, to his own acknowledgement, project - Radiorama. It is interesting to note, that the name and sound of Radiorama were not Farina's idea. Radiorama is a project of cooperation between Aldo Martinelli and Simona Zanini, who by that time had been prominent masters of Italo disco and known by such titles as: Martinelli, Topo & Roby, Moon Ray. His famous child "Comanchero" is o­ne of the style pillars of Italo disco. "Chance To Desire", the first Radiorama release became unprecedentedly popular at all European dance parties, and Switzerland was crazy about that song. But Aldo Martinelli was known by his specialization in singles, not albums. That is why the material of Martinelli, subjected to some further work of the Farina - Crivellente duo, produced by Paolo Gemma & Marco Bresciani and sung by Mauro together with Simona Zanini (who went over to Farina as Martinelli's legacy), was embodied in the album "Desires And Vampires" (1986). The success was tremendous! The albums and singles sold in hundreds of thousand copies. Since that time Mauro Farina had taken over and implemented many of Aldo Martinelli's music ideas in his own work. His music became a continuation of Martinelli's energetic and forceful style. Up to 1986 Farina's arrangements were far from the Radiorama style. For example, in "Movin' up" by Brand Image (1984) not o­nly the style, but Farina's "brand" voice is hardly recognized. Hence it may be concluded that A. Martinelli made the key influence o­n Mauro Farina's work after 1986.

The second album by Radiorama met a bigger success, that the first o­ne. Radiorama acquired a huge army of fans in Europe, Asia and South America. The legendary project achieved greatest success in Japan, Korea, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Italy, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and excited visitors of dance parties throughout the entire Soviet Union. In Japan many radio stations even now play o­ne or another song of the early Radiorama. Simultaneously, Farina keeps writing and singing songs for Joe Yellow, Atrium, Alan Barry, De Niro, recording singles for newly created names, and, as this material to a more or less degree, resembled the sound of Radiorama, all by-projects were destined to success. 1987 is considered Farina's most productive year in respect to such top Italo disco hits as: Radiorama "Ye Ti", Valentino "Tonight", Maltese "Mama", Radiorama "Fire", De Niro "Italian Boy", Chester "Hold The Line"...

Radiorama's third album, "The Legend" (1988), showed the tendency of the project authors to changes in style and sound beat. Since the late 1988 Farina experiences an ambiguous period in his work, called by o­ne sort "energetic eurobeat" and "stupid slaps" by others. At that time disco started losing its popularity in Europe, and many composers and producers, heretofore working with this style, began copying Enigma and Technotronic and, it is noteworthy, releasing somewhat unsuccessful material. M. Farina and G. Crivellente leave Time Records due to it's lack of prospect (nevertheless, Farina asserts, that they remain good friends with Maolini) and started working at Asia Records, making a huge amount of music to satisfy the demand of the Asian (and, foremost, Japanese) music market. "Japanese High-Energy" or "Eurobeat" is distinguished by a fast beat and, say, "simplified" tunes, that had a remote correspondence with the tastes of the classic Italo disco consumers. Making money in Japan cost Farina a great deal of his adherers. The famous Radiorama was made victim of the popularization of the new style. Its fourth album, "Four Years After" (1989), came out so simplified, that many disco fans subsequently did not wish to hear anything of Radiorama after 1988. Though, that album featured o­ne of Farina's most beautiful slow Italo disco songs, "A Love Song". The next disc, "The Fifth" (1990) was o­nly slightly better than the previous o­ne. To take into account, that Farina does not sing in Radiorama almost at all, o­ne can think, that the creators were deliberately killing their cherished child! It is noteworthy, that during this very period Farina and Co released nice, and sometimes - great, hits under different names, which, unfortunately, could not be well met by the European public due to its skepticism toward eurobeat. Nevertheless, the content of the projects, being o­n top of the style, combined rhythmic dance music with good melodies and smash sound effects, which distinguished the duo from some lost luminaries of Euro disco. Here we mean such names as Mark Farina, Thomas & Schubert, F. C. F., King Kong & D. Jungle Girls, Dr. Love, Alpha Town, Angelo Maria Morales, Alan Barry. Most of the songs for these projects were recorded with Mauro's voice, that circumstance being instrumental in their promotion, since most of music lovers consider Farina's voice the best Italo disco vocal, and, after all, that is the voice of "that very legendary Radiorama".

The production of many top hits for the Japanese market was conducted by the newly created company "F.C.F." (Farina - Crivellente - Fadinger). Florian Fadinger, well known as producer of "Electric Salsa" by OFF, whom Mauro back in 1986 made friends with, was in charge of the commercial part of the F. C. F. project and, to render him his deserved credit, very successfully. The F. C. F. logo showed off o­n Japanese umbrellas, bier bottles and purses. So was this eurobeat team popular with the Japanese. The team scored 8 million album CD's and 10 millions of singles! Simultaneously Farina produces woman-voice projects, the best among them being Sophie and Moltocarina. Though, most of the "female" projects were sung by o­ne precious lady, Clara Moroni, who Farina began cooperating closely at the time of Time Records with. Clara's pleasant and strong voice was present in first singles by Joe Yellow, and in a shor while she replaced Simona Zanini in Radiorama. Later the vocalist of the project was Antonella Ferri. Traditionally, Radiorama is formally a duo, but after Farina the dumb male models, succeeding o­ne another, are of no interest to us. o­ne of the reasons Radiorama had acquired a "female face" consisted in the following: the popular project was to give concerts, and Mauro Farina's voice, who persistently wished to remain behind the scene, was needless. Of course, not for older fans!

Many fans ask with gritting of teeth about the cause of the necessity to create so many projects, having o­ne and the same "brand" Farina voice and playing pretty much the same eurobeat. Farina himself to this every time replies obscurely speaks about certain "demands" and peculiarities of the Japanese music market. Let us dissolve this mist. During the period between 1988 and 1992 eurobeat was unbelievably popular in Japan and South Korea, and Oriental music fans were ready to buy any CD with any new name, working within this style. It is good to note that Japanese CD's are considerably more expensive than European discs, and pressing eurobeat projects flowed out in gold showers at Asia Records. The stress was made o­n the quantity of releases rather than o­n their quality. Another aspect was that Farina and his team used to issue several songs at o­nce, with typical accords, tunes and arrangements. The multiplicity of projects here helped a lot: twins and triplets were spread among different projects, all that resulting in an illusion of "diversity" in compositions o­n every disc. Although, there simultaneously appeared a feeling of monotony of the entire style. The author of this narration remembers well, what surprise he listened to the first encountered compilation "That's Eurobeat" with: most of the songs in that compilation were sung by the voice, well know by the "killed" by that time Radiorama, but the track-list featured totally different names: Mark Farina, King Kong, F. C. F. and other! What the...?!

By 1993, when the number of issues of Japanese compilation "That's Eurobeat" was impossible to count, the style had waned, and Mauro Farina began busying himself with high-quality eurodance. There appeared nice singles for Radiorama. Notable success was achieved by Orlando. New names had been created: Ian Lex (Rino Facchinetti), Morgana, TH Express, Wildside (a Radiorama clone in respect to music and formation) and others. Farina's team makes lots of remixes and cover-versions of former hits of the 80's, which suggests a certain decrease of the composing potential of the "King of Italo Disco". Farina harbored the star of the hit "Casablanca", Jessica Jay, and plunged into the reincarnation of former legendary names: Ken Laszlo, Den Harrow and Bronski Beat. New songs under the well-known name of Mark Farina also come out. The positive thing about that was appearance of a number of good songs, performed by famous Italo disco stars. The negative point was that the songs bore a typical resemblance to each other, and it did not really matter, who sang o­ne song or another. Audio pirates, satisfying the need of nostalgic old disco admirers, "issue" numerous Radiorama compilations, that include some new singles of the project. We have o­nly to thank pirates, because such pleasant things as "Your Love", "It's A Lonely Wait", "Sugar Love" have not been included in any officially released album. o­n the other hand, all this material was assembled in the compilation "Radiorama Golden Hits", possibly printed by Koja, a Polish label.

In 1999 the long-awaited 6th album of Radiorama, "The World Of Radiorama", made of the previously issued singles, was released. It restored the good name of Radiorama. The quality of the hits from the new album was duly recognized both by music fans of the new age and the old-school public. At his own record label, S. A. I. F. A. M. (actually a company group, the chief among which are "21st Century" and "One Way Records"), Mauro Farina keeps making albums for former disco-stars together with producing new names of different dance styles. His present team is called "Factory Team" and includes, besides Farina himself, Johnny Di Martino (Johnny Mix) and Fabio Serra. Among the present members of the S. A. I. F. A. M. team it is necessary to note Fabio Turatti, who is o­ne of the most prominent guitar players of classical music in the world, and member of the prestigious Verona music academy. Among the best-selling S. A. I. F. A. M. works are: Bacon Popper - "Rejoice In Love", Groovy 69 - "Stardust With Dust", Spiritual Project - "O' Fortuna", DJ Miko "What's Up 2000" (a million copies sold!), Ken Laszlo - "What A Lonely Night", Kill Joy - "Harmonic Groove", Kernkraft - "Zombie Nation Remix" and others.

But the label primarily specializes in compilations, with its numbers approaching those of stars someday. It is glad to notice, that among these numerous collections there are compilations, containing such tested Italo disco hits as Mr. Zivago's "Tell By Your Eyes". By the way, Mauro is very proud of the fact, that the abovementioned Zivago's single (sometimes printed as Dr. Zhivago, which is unimportant), produced by Farina, had previously been sold in an impressive number - over 500 thousand copies, out of which 200 thousand had been marketed in Japan. And 500 admirers of the Farina - Crivellente star duo have an ability to get a nice box with the "Golden Years" signature at 80 bucks, containing 3 CD's with selected content and a photo-album of 90 pages. You can find all the information at www.saifam.com. This site used to have a forum, where o­ne could even see such posts as: "What music is this! Where is the magic sound of the 80's? Farina has betrayed his fans!" Well, it is, as known, impossible to satisfy everyone's needs, and the rules of the music industry require changes and progress.

Mauro likes to recall the 80's, which "the king" calls "the golden age". "At that time people lived the life of music, were really thirsty about music", - Farina grouses, "nowadays the youth has many other interests, and music is of a second interest to it". But Farina is not discouraged and even builds plans for the USA music market - a sweet piece for any producer, because by means of MTV music, popular in th USA, automatically becomes popular all over the world. So, let us wish him success o­n this uneasy and stubborn road! And enjoy the lately released Radiorama's album "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" (2002), made up of 6 new hits of the present style and 6 pretty well made remixes of the first hits, which Mauro Farina, at last, decided to sing with his magic voice!