Fabio Fabor

Composer and music publisher Fabio Borgazzi (Milan, 1920 – Rome, 2011), better known as Fabio Fabor (or Giorgio Fabor at the beginning of his career), studied composition and conducting at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. He began his career in pop music in the mid-40s, eventually becoming an advisor for music publishers (Carisch, Ricordi, Sonzogno) and writing over 500 songs, including hits for famous Italian singers (such as Fred Buscaglione, Nilla Pizzi and Tony Dallara) and major labels (including Parlophone, Durium, Vox, Columbia, Cetra, Phonocolor, and RCA).   

In the mid-50s he was introduced to the then-flourishing film scene in Rome and started composing soundtracks. He wrote scores for films such as Dino Risi’s Poor But Beautiful (1956), Gianni Puccini’s Carmela è una bambola (1958), Giorgio Simonelli’s Marinai, donne e guai (1958), Antonio Romàn’s La moglie di mio marito (1961), and many others. In 1969, he composed the soundtrack to Damiano Damiani’s A Rather Complicated Girl, based on a short story by Alberto Moravia and starring Catherine Spaak and Jean Sorel. 

Around that time he was also writing and producing music for TV and radio in his own recording studio in Rome (in the Prati neighbourhood, close to the RAI TV studios), while co-managing his wife’s music publishing firm Edizioni Musicali Minstrel. His vast library music output includes albums released under various labels controlled by Minstrel (Style, Fonovideo, Hard, World, Ring, Bam, Flam, etc.), as well as collaborations with other pioneering musicians (Carlo Savina, Franco Ferrara, Mario Nascimbene, Oscar Rocchi, Giancarlo Barigozzi, Enzo Minuti, and Franco Altissimi, just to name a few). 

Between the late 70s and 80s, he devoted much of his creative energy to experimental electronic music, using analog synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines to create immersive and evocative musical soundscapes (two notable albums from this period are Pape Satan and Aquarium). In 1976, some of this music was featured in “Anche questa è musica” (This too is music), a RAI TV programme hosted by Fabor himself that, as its title clearly suggests, aimed to familiarize the general public with (the) experimental electronic music (of the time).  

Fabor composed throughout his life, writing also operas, symphonies and chamber music. His last album, Caramerica (2010), recorded when he was 90, is a tribute to George Gershwin and the Great American Songbook writers, who had such an impact on him in his youth that he decided to become a composer.