Italo Brutalo is a vintage synth enthusiast, circuit-bending expert, and genre-defying producer with over 25 years in the game. Blending EBM, Italo, electro, and raw analogue energy, he’s built a unique sound and strong following. With his debut album Heartware and a string of sold-out releases on his label Bungalo Disco, he continues to champion hardware-driven music—both in the studio and on stage.
We sat down with Vincent to talk about his upcoming album Second Horizon and the release party we’re hosting together at ELSE on May 29!
Hey Vincent, we’re so happy to have you on board with our KEYI community! Could you introduce yourself?
Hi, I’m Vincent, also known as Italo Brutalo. I was born and raised in the tri-border region between Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. I’m a former national and European DJ champion, a synthesizer and sampling nerd, and the co-founder of Bungalo Disco.
You’re known for your deep love of vintage analogue synths. Which synths played a central role in shaping the sound of Second Horizon, and how did you push them to their limits?
Besides many machines, I used to produce this album i often used the Roland TR-707 with a Linndrum soundkit, a SH-101 and several TB-303s and some clones of it. I work a lot with old fx units from the 80s to get a certain dirt and lo-fi character into the sounds. One song is even produced entirely on an old multitrack tape recorder.
The album title, Second Horizon, feels symbolic. What does it mean to you personally? Is it a reference to artistic evolution, or something deeper?
I’m in my 40s now, and going through changes or starting over at this age isn’t as easy as it is when you’re 20 years younger. Two years ago, I left Munich and moved to Berlin. Second Horizon represents both discovering new things and rediscovering myself in a new way. The older I get, the more relaxed I become—and that sense of ease has influenced my artistic evolution, among other things.
We are here to premiere ‘Digital Freedom’, our personal favourite. Can you tell us about the creative process ?
Digital Freedom has been the very first song I made for Second Horizon. It´s been written and produced mostly with an Ensoniq Mirage sampler from 1984. That was the world’s first affordable sampling machine back then. I bought it with a lot of floppy discs with lots of sounds on it, which reminded me of music John Carpenter made at that time. So the direction and mood of the song were more or less quite set by this machine. Its character is fantastic because of the low sampling depth of 8bit.
You’ve been called a “vintage synth and sampler fetishist” — what’s the one piece of gear you couldn’t live without, and is there a holy grail synth you’re still hunting?
lay as big a role in music production as they do today, because their audio editing and recording capabilities were quite limited. The centerpiece of any studio was a sampler—you could create any sound with a machine like that. Sampling opened up a whole universe for me. It completely captivated me, and even today, I still find it fascinating to record any audible source and turn it into something entirely new.
I’ve kept that same workflow I had as a teenager, back when I couldn’t afford synths or other studio gear. All I had was a sampler, and I could do everything with it. So, if there’s one piece of gear I couldn’t live without, it’s my Akai MPC3000.
If you ask synthesizer fans, you might hear a few different answers about ‘holy grail’ synths. Luckily, I now have everything I ever wanted—I’m no longer chasing gear. My focus is on actually using all these beautiful machines.
You’ll be performing at our summer special event at ELSE on May 29th, alongside legends like DJ Hell and Umwelt. What can we expect from your set, besides that we will celebrate your release! SO EXCITED! Tell us more!
I never prepare any set. Did that once and after two songs, I had to change everything cause it didn´t work. But of course I will dig deeper in my collection to have some not-so-often or never heard before songs in my collection. I will also play lots of stuff from my new album and some of the great remixes other artists made.
Your sound channels everything from Italo to acid to cyberpunk soundtracks. Which artists or eras do you keep coming back to for inspiration?
I´ve been grown up in the 80s and that´s indeed my biggest musical influence. All these great genres from that era like Italo, New Wave, Electronic Body Music, Electro, Punk, etc. are the ones i am mostly referring to.
Looking ahead, what can we expect from Italo Brutalo and Bungalo Disco in the coming months? What is your secret plan ?
Since my partner Tania started making music under the alias Acida Dominga, our label Bungalo Disco is so far just a playground for Italo Brutalo. We don´t have the capacity to release other people´s music with the power and energy that it deserves. We have a new project in the pipeline but it´s still too early to talk about. Watch out! 😉
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Our next event : ELSE – Berlin – 29.05.2025 – pre sale tickets!
