ANDREA MAZZATRANCE EVOLUTION

01 — Early Years

From Pink Floyd to the dancefloor

Andrea Mazza was born in Sabaudia, Italy, on 12 April 1976. As a teenager his musical education came largely from progressive rock and early electronic music — Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons Project, Jean-Michel Jarre and Klaus Schulze were the records that shaped his ear, without him knowing yet where that path would lead. That changed in the early 1990s, when nights spent in local clubs introduced him to techno at a moment when the genre itself was shifting shape, and his attention gradually moved toward the music being played on dancefloors rather than on record players at home.

02 — First Steps on Air

Radio Aelle and the DancePollution chart

His first real proving ground came at Radio Aelle, where he hosted a daily hour-long show built around a chart of the dance, trance and techno tracks of the moment — the DancePollution chart. The show built him a strong regional following, and that reputation opened the door, in 1999, to a national broadcaster, Italia Radio. When that station closed a few years later to make way for a new one, m2o, Andrea moved across with it — and it was there that he met Luca Martinelli.

03 — The Mazza & Martinelli Project

A duo, a studio, a sound

Together, Mazza and Martinelli formed the duo known as Mazza & Martinelli, or simply M&M, and alongside their work on air they began producing music together, releasing tracks such as Kiss That Sound, Good Fun and My Time Is Yours on labels including Gas Records. The pair didn't stop at the booth and the studio: they took the Zero Db name into clubs as well, playing live together and building a following that pushed them to launch two shows that would come to define the years ahead — Trance Evolution and Zero Db.

It was through those two programmes that the duo's sound first travelled beyond Italy. ETN.fm, one of the earliest web radio stations dedicated entirely to trance, secured exclusive rights to carry Trance Evolution to listeners around the world, and the response — in audience numbers and feedback alike — came back from every corner of the globe.

04 — Going Solo

The split, and a path of his own

Through 2007, Trance Evolution moved more than once within m2o's schedule, shifting from a late Sunday-night slot to an evening one, while Zero Db settled into the small hours between Sunday and Monday. That period of adjustment preceded a bigger turning point: in 2008, the Mazza & Martinelli partnership came to a definitive end, as Luca Martinelli chose to steer his career toward more commercial sounds. Andrea Mazza chose the opposite direction, staying true to the genre that had always defined him and picking his solo career back up — both under his own name in trance, and under the alias "Brainstorm" in hardstyle.

05 — Fifteen Years at the Helm

The only show of its kind

From that point on, Andrea Mazza became the sole host of both Trance Evolution and Zero Db, supported over the years by a small team of fellow DJs already known on the Italian scene — among them Hardboy on the hardstyle side and T.F.F. (Trance For Friends) on the progressive side. For more than fifteen years, Trance Evolution remained the only Italian radio programme covering trance music with national reach, backed by a forum and Facebook community that stayed remarkably active throughout.

06 — From Radio to YouTube

A new home, the same monthly ritual

When Albertino took over as m2o's artistic director and the station's schedule was overhauled, Trance Evolution left terrestrial radio behind and moved to its own YouTube channel. Andrea used the move to expand the format rather than simply preserve it: he introduced a monthly "Progressive Zone" segment curated by T.F.F., kept the weekly chart running, and added a recurring guest mix from Colonial One — a rhythm of releases that has continued, largely unchanged, ever since.

07 — International Recognition

Armada, Black Hole, and the road with Tiësto

The studio work that ran alongside his hosting eventually earned Andrea record deals with two of the most important labels in trance music: Armada Music, founded by Armin van Buuren, and Black Hole Recordings, the label associated with Tiësto. Among the highlights of his DJ career are opening for Tiësto at Cocorico in the summer of 2009, headlining Trance Evolution's 10th-anniversary party in Bologna, and playing Fabrique in Milan alongside Aly & Fila. In the same period he joined Go On Air Recordings, the label founded by Giuseppe Ottaviani, as co-founder of its A&R division, while continuing to collaborate in the studio with other producers and friends, including Fabio XB.

08 — Discography Highlights

Two decades of releases

Over the years, Andrea's productions — solo and in collaboration — have appeared on a wide range of trance and progressive labels, including Gas Records, Melodie Metropolitane, Drizzly, Mazeman, S107/Armada, Black Hole Recordings, Vandit Records, Go On Air Recordings, Universal Nation, Go Music and Antima.

Alongside his original tracks, Andrea has also mixed several compilations across his career, including Trance Session 2007 and both volumes of the Trance Evolution Compilation.

09 — Today

Still on air, every month

More than two decades after his first radio show, Andrea Mazza still personally hosts every monthly episode of Trance Evolution, keeping it one of the longest-running and most recognisable names in Italian trance and progressive — with a following that, thanks to the move from radio to podcast and YouTube, now reaches well beyond Italy's borders.