Biography
Mao, stage name of Mauro Gurlino, was born in Turin, Italy. As he likes to say, Turin is somewhere between Foggia and Aosta. He has earned a degree in History and Criticism of the 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 Giovani 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 (Radio Deejay, Radio Flash and Gru Radio), actor both in long films ("20 Venti" by Marco Pozzi, "500!" by Giovanni Robbiano, Lorenzo Vignolo and Matteo Zingirian, "Perduto Amor" 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 RaiDue. Rai, the Italian national television, had him as well as resident musician for the radio show "Ventura Football Club" broadcasted on RaiRadio1.
For fifthteen years, he has been organizing 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. Together with Marco Peroni and Mario Congiu, 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 he published his second solo record, "Piume pazze", distributed for free on internet, followed by two novels, "Meglio tardi che Mao" (Express Edizioni) in 2011, and "Mao sogna Celentano e gliele canta" (Arcana Edizioni) in 2013, beyond currently working to the debut record of the electronic music experiment project Bit Reduce (www.bitreduce.it). From 2014, he has been member of the "Roba forte" squad (www.robaforte.it), cult radio show broadcasted live from a club. He is owner and manager of CortoCorto STUDIO, an indie recording and production studio located in the heart of San Salvario neighborhood in Turin.
