Born in Rome in 1979, Alessandro Mannarino began performing in clubs in the city’s old quarter of Monti in 2001. His sets were a mixture of live concerts and DJ-ing. In 2006, he formed the five-piece band Kampina, which became a fixture on Rome’s music scene.
A modern storyteller and urban singer-songwriter, Mannarino composes boundary-crossing music that reflects the multicultural reality of contemporary Rome. His surrealistic lyrics evoke dreamy, tragicomic stories of clowns, drunks and love-struck Gypsies. Based on a foundation of Italian folk
music, Mannarino’s songs feature influences from Balkan and Gypsy music and conjure up a Fellini-esque atmosphere of circuses and magic.