Discomania: When Piero Umiliani Experimented with Disco
A 1978 library record marks legendary composer Piero Umiliani’s bold step into disco, as told by his daughter Elisabetta.
By 1978, disco had firmly planted its mirrorball-shaped roots across the world, from Studio 54 to the streets of Rome. That same year, Italian composer Piero Umiliani, best known for his jazz-infused film scores and the global hit Mah Nà Mah Nà, released a curious and compelling library music album titled Discomusic. Issued under the pseudonym The Soundwork-Shoppers, the album was a limited-run experiment in jazz, easy listening, and disco. Its standout track, Discomania, would go on to achieve cult status. This, however, did not happen on the dancefloor, but on sports tv: it was chosen as the theme song of the beloved Italian sports TV show Novantesimo Minuto.
We met his daughter Elisabetta Umiliani in New York City. Together with her sister Alessandra, they are keeping their father’s legacy alive, introducing new generations to the eclecticism and experimentation he was known for.
“Dad and disco music were two opposite worlds,” laughs Elisabetta Umiliani, remembering her childhood perception of her father. “But the record proves it’s not true.” She recalls a man deeply devoted to jazz, skeptical of mainstream pop, and often resistant to trends. “I loved Renato Zero’s Il Triangolo,” she recalls, referring to the threesome-themed hit by Renato Zero. “One day he heard it playing and said, ‘What on earth are you listening to?’ Then he confiscated the record.”
Despite this, Piero Umiliani was anything but close-minded when it came to musical innovation. Discomusic - pressed in just 300 copies for non-commercial library use- was not a stylistic betrayal, but a bold act of experimentation, innovation, and integration. “He perceived that this fashion was coming to Italy,” says Elisabetta. “So he created a library album - not to sell, but to explore and express himself.”
The track Discomania was his most resonant contribution to the genre, thanks to its eventual adoption as the closing theme of Novantesimo Minuto, the Sunday night football recap that became an institution on state-controlled RAI. Millions of Italians came to associate its funky shimmer and driving groove with weekend football, elevating a one-off library cut into the national consciousness.
The album’s cover, a striking collage filled with playful pop references - from Mickey Mouse to Fruit of the Loom - captured the same irreverent spirit. “That cover always struck me,” Elisabetta recalls. “It felt very spiritual, in a pop way.” And like the music itself, it was possible only because the record wasn’t intended for commercial release - sidestepping copyright concerns and freeing Umiliani to play.
The music on Discomusic wasn’t built for the dancefloor in the traditional sense. “It wasn’t the kind of disco you heard on the radio or at the disco,” says Elisabetta. “It was elevated. The arrangements and production were on another level.” It is a collection of compositions that evoke the upbeat disco mood if associated with certain images on TV. Crafted with precision and care, the tracks bear the hallmark of Umiliani’s jazz background and his pioneering embrace of electronic instruments.
Indeed, Umiliani was among the first Italian composers to experiment with synthesizers. He traveled to London and New York to acquire gear and taught himself how to use it. “No one showed him - he locked himself in the studio and figured it out,” Elisabetta says. One of his early synth projects, Switched On Naples, reimagined traditional Neapolitan songs with psychedelic analog textures, baffling his peers but laying groundwork for a new sound.
These projects appear under the stage name The Soundwork-Shoppers, the latest addition to a long list of aliases, including Rovi, Moggi, Catamo that he used to disguise his prolific output. “People at RAI TV would say, ‘Let’s not use Umiliani again, let’s go with Rovi,’ not realizing it was still him,” Elisabetta explains. “He worried about saturating the market with his name.”
In their most ambitious effort to date, Elisabetta and Alessandra Umiliani have also restored and reopened their father’s historic recording space, the Sound Workshop. At the heart of this remarkable studio is its 900-square-foot main tracking room—perfectly preserved in all its original glory. Acoustically designed for maximum versatility, it’s ideal for strings, orchestras, and both small and large ensembles.
The mix translation in this room is astonishingly accurate, thanks to a top-tier selection of vintage and modern microphones (ribbon, tube) and state-of-the-art Aurora Lynx converters supporting up to 32 channels. Most uniquely, all of Umiliani’s original keyboards and synthesizers remain available on-site, giving contemporary artists access to the very instruments used by the Maestro himself—to shape sound and pursue new sonic dreams in the same room where musical history was made.
A special thank you to Giuseppe Giammetta for the photos.
Eager to learn more about Piero Umiliani? Start with these 5 tracks.
Omg this is amazing! Love it! Thank you!
Wow, fantastic! I know (and love) a lot of Umiliani's work, but I was previously unfamiliar with this stuff!