About

Francesco Farfa

Francesco Casaburi, born in Bonconvento (Tuscany) on 23 September 1968.

 

“I had two uncles who were street vendors selling cassettes and vinyl records, my parents did the same job for costume jewelry. When we met at fairs most of the time I didn't spend it at my parents booth”.

 

In 1983 Francesco receives a mixer powered by a 9v battery as a gift, he removes the turntable from the hi-fi system in his living room and finds another used one. It is in the basement of his house that his musical journey will begin.

 

Between birthday parties and meetings with friends, his garage will become a meeting point for the teenagers in the neighborhood.

This will attract the attention of the city's nightclub, very famous for its Sunday afternoons. 

 

“It took me a year and a half before I let a well-known DJ listen to my first mixed tape. It was my choice, it had to be a job well done!" 

 

In 1985 Francesco starts working at the "Y" discotheque in Certaldo (Florence) on Sunday afternoons. From here he begins his apprenticeship in various clubs in the Tuscan provinces, including: Barcaccina in Livorno, Imperiale in Tirrenia, Tartana in Follonica and Insomnia in Pisa. 

 

The name FARFA is born in a "psychedelic evening" among friends in Tirrenia, in 1990. They will be the ones who gives him this stage name.

 

In 1991 he begins his international career by participating in the birth of the Rave Age in Paris and in the development of the progressive and techno scene in Europe.

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In the mid-90s Farfa becomes part of the English Music Scene where some specialized magazines begin to write articles on the "Farfa phenomenon" including Dj Mag, Melody Maker and Update, while Ben Turner's Muzik choose him for the cover of his first issue. 

 

"It makes me smile to think that in 1987 I was an ordinary tourist on his first trip to London to "hunt for vinyl", and after almost 8 years I found myself playing in the best clubs in the city”.

 

Barcelona will be his adopted city for almost 13 years, serving as the logistical center for his international travels. In Spain, Farfa will build his personal and recording projects by collaborating with various realities and professionals in the music scene.

 

From 1995 to 2004 he will reach his peak of worldwide popularity.

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From 2005 begins an exponential commercialization of the DJ figure at an international level.

 

“At one point, I realized that the world was changing drastically: I felt compelled to adapt quickly to the advent of digital technology.”

 

Farfa rides the wave of the expansion of popularity, but in 2011 he will face the identity crisis that will lead him to choose to retire from the media scene by decreasing his work rhythms until 2017.

 

“It was only a few years later that I realized how counterproductive this choice was for my music which has always been my mission. I realized that music, through a consistent digitization, had lost all its attractive and spiritual component”.

 

Since 2017, after years of study and reflections on music, Francesco begins to select collaborations and events aimed at a musical dimension that draws from his origins, enriched with new sounds. And it will be from the same year that he begins an ongoing collaboration with the Tenax of Florence, of which Academy he will become a teacher. 

 

“It was like taking a trip to hell and being reborn with a new consciousness. The circularity of the vinyl, like a spiral, pushed me upwards, giving me new light and confirming the spiritual power of analogue music”. 

 

Today Francesco Farfa is recognized as a proponent of the electronic music clubbing scene, he continues to perform all over the world and collaborates in contemporary musical projects, merging his ideas with the new generations.