Video by Flemming Bo.

If you have no clue what the title of this post means, I totally understand. My favourite band, Styx, recorded a track called “Mr. Roboto,” in which they sang some Japanese lyrics, “domo arigato.” Although Robotnick isn’t from Japan, we say domo arigato to him, which translates to “thank you very much” in English. Hailing from Italy, 61 year old Alexander Robotnick, aka Maurizio Dami, is no doubt, one of the biggest Italian disco legends around. This guy has been a household name on the scene for the past 30 years. He made his debut on the Italian music scene as the founding member of Avida, which was a dance/cabaret band, releasing an album in 1981.

Photo taken by Johanne Fick.

In ’83, Alexander attained international acclaim with his track, “Problèmes d’amour,” which became a “cult track” of dance music. Additionally, Alexander gained popularity for creating music for special events and fashion exhibitions, such as Missoni and Capucci. A turning point came in 1987, stearing Alexander’s interest towards African, Kurdish and Indian music. He formed Data From Africa with Niba Boniface and staged numerous concerts up until 1990. After forming many more bands, working with various labels and exploring music further and further, he established his own label in 2000 called Hot Elephant Music. Turning his back on “electro” music in 2002, he collaborated with Max Durante and Teomad in the creation of “Oh no…Robotnick,” which is greeted with mixed reviews.

Photo taken by Johanne Fick.

It wasn’t until April of 2003 that he finally got ahold of a professional laptop and started DJing. Fabrice Guarnascione offered him a debut at Spartacus Club. It was such a huge success that as of June 2003, Robotnick has been DJing all throughout Europe.  Since 1984, Mr. Robotnick has been living solely off of his work as a musician, more recently a DJ. Beside Italo-Disco and New Wave from the 80s, he plays the most interesting tracks of contemporary electro and progressive-house. He rocked the house Saturday night, with his exceptional mixture of musical genres. We were excited to see him perform at Trailerpark and look forward to hearing more from this living legend. Check out what this charming fellow had to say to the ArtRebels crew.