Turin-based DJ, producer and label founder Antonello Ferrari and is gearing up for Amsterdam Dance Event’s 30th edition this October.
Antonello Ferrari has spent more than four decades in dance music, from DJing Turin’s clubs in 1979 to founding Sunflowermusic Records in 2017, the soulful house, nu disco and deep house label distributed by MN2S Label Services. Across that career he has built a catalogue of vocal-led house records with regular collaborators including Aldo Bergamasco, Dave Lee, Richard Earnshaw, Eric Kupper, DJ Spen, Terrence Parker and Grant Nelson, released through labels such as Z Records, King Street Sounds, Quantize Recordings and Purple Music alongside his own imprint. With a busy end to 2026 ahead, headlined by Amsterdam Dance Event.
From Turin’s dancefloors to the DJ booth
Ferrari started out in 1979, playing funk and soul at Turin nightspots including Divina, Privè and Heaven, while building parallel experience on the radio at Radio Torino International and RadioCentro95. A 1982 residency at Chez-Nous ran alongside work with Radio 105 Network, and from 1984 to 1989 he headed the dance department at RV1 Black Radio, producing reviews and hosting DJ sets. A further residency at Hennessy followed from 1987 to 1989. In 1993, Turin newspaper La Stampa named him the city’s best DJ following a reader poll of more than 5,000 votes, per Radio Zena bio.
First productions: The Groovers and HearthRhythm
Ferrari began producing in 1992, releasing through Italian labels including D-Vision and UMM. His 1995 project The Groovers marked an early production milestone, followed in 1996 by HearthRhythm, whose single “You Gotta Move” reached the UK house rankings and drew a remix from German producer Boris Dlugosch. HearthRhythm has stayed part of his story ever since, resurfacing on Sunflowermusic Records with a 2019 remix package featuring vocalist Ladeeva.
Building Sunflowermusic Records
Ferrari founded Sunflowermusic Records in 2017 as a home for soulful music, house, nu disco, soul funk disco, afro house, deep house and garage. The label has since built a small, consistent roster alongside Ferrari’s own output, including Enrico BSJ Ferrari & Matteo Vitale, HP Vince, Walter G & Giovanni Guerretti and Sabrina Stones, and has been distributed by MN2S Label Services for around three years. After a short break, Ferrari is back in the studio with his team, building on a release pace that rarely slows: his Beatport catalogue shows new tracks landing almost every week through 2026, with vocal turns from Sulene Fleming, Elisha Jay, Sophia Baker, Emma Diva and others alongside longtime co-producer Aldo Bergamasco. He has releases scheduled through the end of 2026 and into the first half of 2027.
Ferrari has thrown his support behind the wave of new AI transparency measures rolling out across the industry. Beatport now blocks tracks that are wholly or substantially AI-generated, while Traxsource introduces “Human-Made” and “AI-Assisted” labelling from 1 July 2026, and Spotify is rolling out its own disclosure rules. “It’s the same policy I adopt for my own productions and for artists who want to collaborate with my label,” Ferrari says, a principle that has underpinned Sunflowermusic Records’ vocal house output from the start.
Amsterdam Dance Event 2026
The highlight of Ferrari’s calendar this year is Amsterdam Dance Event, running 21 to 25 October as the festival marks its 30th anniversary. Founded in 1996 as a small professional gathering, ADE has grown into the electronic music industry’s biggest annual fixture, pairing five nights of club programming across 200-plus Amsterdam venues with ADE Pro, the conference where labels, agents and platforms shape the deals and policy that carry into the year ahead. This year’s 30th edition carries extra weight, with Jean-Michel Jarre serving as guest of honour and a first-wave lineup already running past 250 artists. For Ferrari, ADE lands squarely in a packed second half of 2026 that also includes continued dates on his own Soul Heaven: The Pleasure of the Music tour, alongside the run of Sunflowermusic Records releases taking him through into 2027.
The Sunflowermusic circle
Collaboration remains central to the Sunflowermusic sound. Ferrari has a long track record with some of soulful house’s leading vocalists, including Beautiful View with Dawn Tallman, Freedom Pt. 2 with Angela Johnson, Josephine with Marc Evans and No Way with Tony Barrow, and he confirms more work with this circle, and others, is planned. Alongside his production and label work, he remains a regular broadcaster, currently hosting Studio 54 on Radio Zena every Saturday at 9pm, playing funk and disco classics, and he has produced multiple shows for Radio Party Groove, including Tutti Frutti, Studio 54 and Coolture, since 2004. Sunflowermusic Records has been distributed by MN2S Label Services for around three years, and as Ferrari put it in an MN2S testimonial: “My sincere thanks go to all the MN2S team for their professionalism and support for any need. I can say that there is nothing better!”
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