Peppe Voltarelli ‐
La grande corsa verso Lupionópolis (Visage
Music, 2023/2025)
“La grande corsa verso Lupionópolis”
is the seventh studio album by Italian songwriter Peppe Voltarelli, released by
the record label Visage Music on 26 May 2023. The Calabrian songwriter presents
a collection of songs recorded in New York by Marc Urselli (three Grammy Awards
and collaborations with Lou Reed, Nick Cave, and U2) at Manhattan’s historic East
Side Sound, and artistically produced and arranged by Los Angeles-based Italian
producer/keyboard player Simone Giuliani (to his credit, productions with Andrea
Bocelli and the London Symphony Orchestra). The album, which contains ten tracks
including eight songs in Calabrian dialect, one in Italian, and an instrumental
waltz, was recorded in February 2023 and features musicians of international
calibre such as Devin Hoff (double bass), Jake Owen (guitar), Stephane San Juan
(drums), Mauro Refosco (percussions), and the participation of Eleanor Norton
(cello), Doug Wieselman (saxophone and clarinet), and Amy Denio (vocals). The
record is accompanied by the music videos of the songs “Nun signu sulu mai”, shot
in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighbourhood and directed by Giacomo Triglia (Brunori
Sas, Jovanotti, Lucio Dalla, Måneskin), “Au
cinéma”, directed by Lele Nucera and made with the actors and
workers of the Calabria Film School, and “Spremuta di limone”, directed by Tony Gutierres. The album
entered the five finalists for the Tenco Award in the category best album in
dialect, placing second in the final ranking, and won the City of Loano
National Award for Traditional Italian Music as best album of 2023.
Peppe Voltarelli is a Calabrian singer,
songwriter, actor and writer. He has been active since 1990 as the founding
voice and leader of Il parto delle nuvole pesanti, a cult Italian new
folk band. As a solo artist, he has released seven studio albums, four soundtracks, and two concerts. He won the prestigious Tenco Award three times, with “Ultima notte a Malá Strana” in 2010 as best album in dialect, with “Voltarelli canta Profazio” in 2016, and with “Planetario” in 2021, both as best performer album. He was the lead actor and co-writer of the film “The true legend of Tony Vilar”
by Giuseppe Gagliardi, the first Italian mokumentary. He boasts collaborations
with Claudio Lolli, Teresa De Sio, Silvio Rodríguez, Adriana Varela, Kevin
Johansen, Sergio Cammariere, Otello Profazio, Roy Paci, Carmen Consoli, and Bandabardò. His intense concert activity has led him to play in
27 countries around the world and his records have been released in Europe,
Argentina, Canada, and the United States.
Alex Rossi ‐
L’amore fa volare / Come stai? (Kwaidan Records, 2025)
Depuis 2012, Alex Rossi
« le plus italien des chanteurs français » remet au goût du Spritz la
variété italienne en France, avec ses compagnons de la grappe, Arnaud Pilard et
Romain Guerret du groupe français Aline. De “Lʼultima canzone” à “Tutto
va bene quando facciamo lʼamore” en passant par “Faccia a faccia“.
Remixé par la sono électro mondiale, entendu dans plusieurs films au cinéma,
séries tv et campagnes de mode (Dior, Pucci), Rossi connait un succès
international et bien-sûr en Italie, pays de ses origines où il est invité
régulièrement dans les soirées du collectif italien Disco Stupenda (avec
Pino DʼAngiò, Ryan Paris ou Ken Laszlo) mais aussi diffusé sur la Rai Radio 2.
Après avoir signé des chansons pour le producteur français Yuksek (“Fantasia“)
ou encore pour le duo Italo-disco milanais Italoconnection (“L’Haçienda“), Alex Rossi nous revient après le tube turbo-disco de l’été dernier “Lʼamore fa volare” avec “Come stai?“, deuxième extrait de son nouvel album rital à paraitre en 2026 sur le label Kwaidan Records du producteur Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague).
Mao, stage name of Mauro Gurlino, was born in Turin, Italy, on 16 April 1971. As he likes to say, Turin is somewhere between Foggia and Aosta. He has earned a degree in History and Criticism of Cinema at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the University of Turin. A creative and in-depth critique discussing the musical film “Yuppi du” by Adriano Celentano was among his final thesis topics. «He is and has been anything», as once he was defined by a journalist describing his eclectic thirty-year career.
He has been leader in the Nineties of the band Mao e la Rivoluzione, publishing two records for Virgin Records (“Sale” and “Casa“, attending Sanremo Festival with the song “Romantico” and performing the opening act for Oasis), presenter with Andrea Pezzi for tv shows broadcasted on MTV Italy (“Kitchen“, “Hot“, “Romalive“, “Tiziana“, “Tokusho“), speaker for radio stations since the high school (Rai Radio 1, Radio Deejay, Radio Città Futura, Radio Flash), actor both in long films (“20 Venti” by Marco Pozzi, “500!” by Giovanni Robbiano, Lorenzo Vignolo and Matteo Zingirian, “Perdutoamor” by Franco Battiato, “A/R Andata+Ritorno” and “Passione sinistra” by Marco Ponti, “I solidi idioti” by Enrico Lando) and in short films (directed by Enrico Iacovoni, Nicola Rondolino, Igor Mendolia and Guido Norzi).
Over the years, he has collaborated with several musicians, among which, Delta V, Max Gazzè and Morgan, producer of his first solo record “Black mokette“, released by Sony Music, followed by the soundtrack for the film “500!“, released by Mescal. Together with Santabarba, he played as resident band for the music tv show “Scalo 76” broadcasted on Rai 2. Rai, the Italian national television, had him as well as resident musician for the radio show “Ventura Football Club” broadcasted on Rai Radio 1.
For over twenty years, together with his artistic collective CortoCorto, he has been organising showcases for the Turin nightclubbing scene through the soundtrack contests “Duel“, the song contests “LaBase” and the talk shows “Il Salotto di Mao“, formats which have hosted more than 1,000 artists. He was member for ten years of the trio Le Voci del Tempo, a band telling the Italian history in clubs and theatres with shows mixing images, readings and songs.
In 2010 published his third solo record, “Piume pazze“, distributed for free on internet, followed by two music novels “Meglio tardi che Mao” (Express Edizioni) in 2011 and “Olràit! Mao sogna Celentano e gliele canta” (Arcana Edizioni) in 2013. He is owner and manager of CortoCorto STUDIO, an audio-video recording and production studio located in the heart of San Salvario neighborhood in Turin.
Between 2019 and 2020 he returned on the record market with the singles “Nudi alla meta“, “Le cose” and the music video of “Scusa caro vicino“, born from the artistic collaboration with writer Enrica Tesio and produced by DJ Aladyn and Max Bellarosa from Radio Deejay. Also in 2020, in a duet with Il Tusco, he released the music video for “Velenosa“. In 2022, exactly twenty-five years after the release of the seminal album “Casa“, he surprisingly published the music video for “Stringimi #25“, recorded as a duet with Bianco and filmed at the Murazzi del Po in front of the historic Giancarlo club.
In 2025 he joins Delta V as the opening act for their tour presenting the new album “In fatti ostili“, performing in some of the most renowned music clubs across Italy. During the tour, he presents audiences with an exclusive preview of several unreleased songs from his forthcoming and highly awaited new album, scheduled for release in 2026.
