Severo Lombardoni

Severo Lombardoni in the mid-1990s

Severo Lombardoni (actually Severino Lombardoni, born March 7, 1949 in Pedrengo near Bergamo , † February 13, 2012 in Milan ) was an independent music producer in Italy. He was the founder and owner of Discomagic Srl and is considered one of the founders of Italo Disco and Italo Dance.

Life

Lombardoni was the eldest child of Francesco Lombardoni and Francesca, nee Nava. He had three younger siblings; his sisters Anna and Ornella and his brother Vittorio are also in the music business. Severo attended the Technical High School in Seriate from 1960 to 1963 and graduated from the Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” di Milano in 1969.

In his youth, Lombardoni took part in local bicycle races. He mastered several instruments; During his time at the conservatory and in the following years he played trombone, piano, harmonica and guitar in various bands . For a year he taught music in a primary school.

In 1974 Lombardoni opened a record store in Seriate. He later moved to Milan and founded a record wholesaler there in 1977.

Discomagic and Lombardoni Edizioni Musicali

In 1981 Lombardoni opened the record company Discomagic and the music publisher Lombardoni Edizioni Musicali . Discomagic developed quickly and was the largest Italo disco music producer in the country from the mid to late 1980s. In addition to the main label “Disco Magic”, the company had many sub-labels in which titles were produced whose chances of success seemed uncertain or which belonged to other music genres. Discomagic also distributed national, European and worldwide titles from catalogs of labels such as “Time Records”, “DWA”, “RARE” or “GGM”.

With Discomagic , Lombardoni set many standards of its time. The Via Mecenate in Milan, had in his company domiciled, became a center of music retailers and producers. Lombardoni was the first music producer in Italy to advertise its products on television. The mass production of compilations in the late 1980s also found many imitators.

Lombardoni also appeared as a music publisher with Lombardoni Publishing Srl . Composers Lombardoni worked with included Pierluigi Giombini , Paolo Pelandri, Domenico Ri'cchini, Manuel Curry and Luis Garcia Perez , among others . The greatest successes were productions like “Don't cry tonight” by Savage , “Shanghai”, “Sayonara”, “Don't Stop The Music” by Lee Marrow , “Happy children” by P. Lion and “Dolce vita” by Ryan Paris , all of which appeared in 1983. In 1989 he published Black Box's “Ride on Time” . The song from the LP “Dreamland” became one of the greatest successes of the time in Europe despite copyright disputes. In 1988, Lombardoni founded Lombardoni Musik GmbH in Germany , which in 1990 reached tenth place among the most successful music publishers in Germany.

Financial problems led to the discontinuation of business operations in 1997. Lombardoni had to sell the main label “Disco Magic” with its catalog to the German music producer Bernhard Mikulski ( ZYX Music ). Saifam took over some of the smaller sub- labels . The sub-label Dance World Attack became independent.

Productions (selection)

• 1983, Ryan Paris, “Dolce Vita”
• 1983, P. Lion, "Happy Children"
• 1985, Lee Marrow, "Shanghai"
• 1985. Lee Marrow, "Sayonara"
• 1983, Savage, "Don't cry tonight"
• 1986, Gazebo , “Trotsky Burger”
• 1988, Savage, "So Close"
• Joe Yellow , "I'm Your Lover"
• Den Harrow , "A laste of Lave, To Meet Me"
• Gary Low , "You Are a Danger"

Sublabels (selection)

• "Out"
• "High Energy"
• "Sensation Records"
• "Out Records"
• "Trash Records"
• "Yellowstone Records"

Hitland

From the end of the 1990s Lombardoni and his son Matteo published compilations and reprints of Italo disco hits from the 1980s under the label “Hitland”.

Lombardoni was married twice and had two children. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage on February 13, 2012. The funeral service took place in the parish church of Madonna Aiuto dei Cristiani in Milan. He was then buried in the Pedrengo cemetery near Bergamo.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The company was also known as Discomagic Records and Discomagic Publishing . It was based in Via Mecenate 78A in Milan, according to Rateyourmusic.com
2. ↑ L'Europeo: Settimanale politico d'attualità, Volume 49, Editoriale Domus, 1993, p. 63
3. ↑ according to Curriculum vitae ( memento of the original from June 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Voceditalia.it (in Italian) 
4. ↑ Anna Lombardoni is the owner of the music label Sym Music Srl , gem. the website of the company
5. ↑ Severo Lombardoni played the trombone in the Bergamo city band "Banda Gaetano Donizetti" and harmonica and guitar in the Italian rock band "Il Comitato" from 1970 to 1974
6. ↑ according to Colin Larkin (Ed.), The Guinness encyclopedia of popular music , Volumes 1-6, ISBN 1-56159-176-9 , Guinness, 1995, p. 1180
7. ↑ according to Profile description of Discomagic Records at Discogs.com , with a list of all sub-labels (in Italian)

Web links

• Detailed CV at Voceditalia.it (in Italian)
• Addio a Severo Lombardoni, pioniere della italo-dance , obituary at Rockol.it (in Italian)
• Interview with producer Luigi Fedele during his time at Discomagic (in English)