Alexander Robotnick aka Maurizio Dami is an Italian music producer. He makes his debut on the Italian music scene as the founding-member of Avida, a "dance -cabaret band" featuring Daniele Trambusti and Stefano Fuochi and releasing a 7''track "La bustina" published by Materiali Sonori in 1981. In 1983 he then attains international popularity under the pseudonym "Alexander Robotnick" and his track "Problemes d'amour", published first by the Italian label Materiali Sonori and then by Sire-Wea , becomes a "cult track" of dance music. Materiali Sonori released also his first album: "Ce n'est q'un debut" In 1984 he joins "Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici" a multimedia -oriented group and composes sound-tracks for theatre works, videos and video-installations. Still in the 80s he gains a reputation as the creator of ambient music for special events and fashion exhibitions (Pitti Immagine, Prato Expo, Capucci, Missoni) . He also composes sound-tracks for films and theatre works by Italian directors such as Alessandro Benvenuti, Antonio Climati, Marco Mattolini, Marco Risi. In 1987 he turns his interest to World Music, meeting African, Kurdish and Indian musicians who live in Italy and making music with them. "Data from Africa", the band he puts up with Niba Boniface (Camerun) , stages numerous concerts until 1990. In 1993 he meets an Indian flute player, living in Italy: Boliwar Miranda. With him and Ettore Bonafe (tablas) he founds the band "Music for Meditation" later renamed "Masala" and published by Materiali Sonori. In 1994 he starts a collaboration with the Indian-Italian band "Govinda" leading to the production of two tracks "Devotion" and "Transcendental Ecstasy" for Govinda's first album "Selling India by the pound". In Summer 1995 he conceives and organises the I Ambient Music Festival in Florence at Anfiteatro delle Cascine. In 1996 with Nazar Abdulla and Rashmi Bhatt he creates "The Third Planet" , a multi-ethnic band that blends traditional music from Kurdistan, Algeria and India with modern sounds. From 1997 to 2001 Maurizio Dami develops several projects of innovative World Music. With "The Third Planet" he produces 2 albums "Kurdistani" and "The Third Planet" published by CNI (Italy) and licenced by Blue Flame (Germany). The band gives numerous concerts in Italy whilst one of its tracks features in "Nirvana Lounge". In 1997 his collaboration with Lapo Lombardi and Ranieri Cerelli leads to the "Alkemya" project, releasing an album with CNI. With the band "Masala" he produces 2 albums (1998-2000) published by Materiali Sonori, the Italian label the artist has been long associated with. In 2000 he establishes a record label of his own, Hot Elephant Music, to give expression to the different experiences with music developed sofar in his artistic career. In the same period, in collaboration with his friend Ludus Pinsky (Lapo Lombardi) he explores new sounds and technologies, resulting in the production of Underwater Cafe. He also produces E.A.S.Y. vol1 (Elephants Are Sometimes Young). In 2002 he turns back to the "Electro" style that so strongly and succesfully characterized his musical debut and, on that wake, produces "Oh no...Robotnick" in collaboration with Max Durante and Teomad. The album,despite its somewhat dark humor, so typical of Robotnick's early tracks, is not enough disco-dance and fashion-conscious and therefore receives mixed reviews. With Max Durante he gives a live concert at DF03 in Bologna (Link), which is enthusiastic by received. In 2002 he releases "Melt in Time", the third album by The Third Planet in collaboration with Nazar, Paolo Casu, Arup Kanti Das, Smail Kouider, the present elements of The Third Planet. In April 2003 he can finally get hold of a professional lap-top and sets of to undertake DJing, an activity he had never considered before because Robotnick never liked vynil (but he does like audiocassettes a lot). It's Fabrice Guarnascione (Grossomodo Productions) who offers him the opportunity to make his debut as a DJ at Spartacus Club in Aix-En-Provence with Kiko and The Hacker. The night is a success that encourages him to do more DJing. As of June 2003 Robotnick has been djing in a number of clubs around Europe (see Robotnick DJ's page). In Summer 2003 he works with Kiko and The Hacker on a new track "Viens Chez Moi" that will feature in the EP "Les Grands Voyages de l'Amour" (Hot Banana). Robotnick is still strongly fascinated by the old analogic synts and TB303 he works with in Kiko's studio and he soon realises the present impossibility of reproducing, with plug-in software instruments, the typical sound of the 80s that made of him a cult for some. In October 2003 he publishes "Rare Robotnick's" a collection of his vintage tracks. In Autumn 2003 he started his collaboration with Oliver Way and his company: ElPM. In the same period he puts together a mixed compilation to be released by Yellow Productions : "The Disco Tech of...Alexander Robotnick" offers a taste of Robotnick's lap-top DJing style, despite the limits due to the licensing mechanism. In February 2004 he travels to India, a country he's very fond of and keeps going back to since the early 80s; this time also to define the licensing deal of some of Hot Elephant Music's productions with an important Indian label (Times Music). Maurizio Dami's future is very much focused on A.Robotnick's project : he will soon start a new collaboration with Kiko for Hot Banana. But he does'nt want to drop the World-Music projects he dedicated so much energy to in the 90s. In February 2005, with Ludus Pinsky (Lapo Lombardi) released Italcimenti - Under Construction, a kind of joke about Italo-Disco, a dance style from the early 80s that recently reached the status of music cult in a number of countries of the Nord-Europe. In October 2005 starts his collaboration with Creme Organization (NL). They release Krypta 1982 (Rare Robotnick's 2) a couple of 12" including a remix by Bangkok Impact (Clone distribution). Since 1984 Maurizio Dami has been living exclusively on his work as musician and more recently as DJ too. This doesn't make him a wealthy man but is no reason to make him change his original choice. In September 2006 he opens an account on myspace.com, as everybody does, essentially not to be cloned there...;) In May 2007 he releases a CD "My La(te)st Album" (Hot Elephant Music). Robotnick is getting into his 5th year of DJing. His DJ-Set now covers different styles of dance music. Beside Italo-Disco and New Wave from the 80s, he plays the most interesting tracks of contemporary electro-house and minimal-techno. Robotnick's next projects are: In March 2008 he releases "I'm getting lost in my brain", a compilation of remixes taken by Detroit Grand Pubahs, Kompute, Microthol, Robosonic, Lore J, Italcimenti, Alexander Robotnick from his latest album. Recently Alexander Robotnick started working on home-made videoclips, available on Youtube and Digichannel. New projects include tracks and video-clips by A.R., Ludus Pinsky VS Alexander Robotnick, Italcimenti. In April 2009 This is Music LTD released "Obsession For The Disco Freaks", a 12" including remixes by David Carretta, Heavy Foot, Rory Philips. More remixes of that same track have been recently released. Last February Alexander Robotnick and Ludus Pinsky put together their personal analog synths to organise and perform an Analog Session. The idea was to recreate the purely analog sound of the 70s and early 80s which the two artists consider to be the true "electronic sound". The DVD+CD has been released by This Is Music LTD in June 2010 : The Analog Session Recently a number of remixes by Robotnick were released, among which: "Stuck on Repeat" by Little Boots, "Dance Machine" by David Carretta. Go to the Robotnick's player to download a 49' mix of Robotnick remixes. A few years ago, A. R. started producing videoclips. They are neither promotional clips the glossy, costly kind of ones were used to watch on TV nor the home-made VJ style clips made of image loops . Robotnicks clips are original material shot by the author himself. They rather tend to be funny self-caricatures, their only purpose being to snatch a smile from their viewers, something quite unusual today , especially in the music scene. Can I have an ashtray was the first to appear in 2007 , opening A.R.s page on YouTube : www.youtube.com/mauriziodami. Robotnick is getting into his 10th year of DJing. His DJ-Set now covers different styles of dance music. Beside Italo-Disco and New Wave from the 80s, he plays the most interesting tracks of contemporary electro-house and progressive-house. See robotnick DJ-Set In November 2011 he starts his latest project: Robotnick's Archives, releasing digitally 8 EPs that include previous unreleased tracks taken from a variety of supports: tapes, floppy disks, dats, CD-roms, hard-disks. In April 2012 he and Ludus perform a new Analog Session at the new Robotnick's studio. The result is a new album called "April" - release date: January 21, 2013 WARNING : there is a false on the web: my name is Robotnick and not Robotnik Robotnik.it has nothing to do with Robotnick.it