Giorgio Moroder Returns To Casablanca Records
Disco legend heads back to the label that put out some of his most famous work.
Billboard – On Wednesday, Giorgio Moroder announced his return to Casablanca Records. Several of his most famous releases came out on the label in the late ’70s — including his solo album, E=MC², and the Donna Summer records I Remember Yesterday and Bad Girls, which Moroder helped to write and produce.
“Giorgio is one of music’s most important innovators,” Brett Alperowitz, General Manager of Casablanca Records says in a statement. “He ushered in a new era of dance music in 1977 with his groundbreaking production of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love.’ It feels great to have him back with the label and we are looking forward to his next innovation!”
There have been many phases to Moroder’s career. After a series of audacious collaborations with Summer swept dancefloors in the ’70s, he conquered the rest of the world in the ’80s by soundtracking blockbusters – Top Gun, Scarface – and working with David Bowie, Janet Jackson, Blondie, and more. Seemingly content with the breadth of his achievements, he took a long break in the ’90s and ’00s before returning with Déjà Vu in 2015.
His influence is difficult to contain in one genre. Another king of disco, Nile Rodgers, credits the Moroder/Summer collaboration “Love To Love You Baby” with changing his life, and Daft Punk used an extensive quote from Moroder on the Random Access Memories album. Others artists with more oblique connections to disco have also paid homage. Sia and Charli XCX contributed to Déjà Vu, while Shooter Jennings – son of the country legend Waylon Jennings – released a project that honored Moroder earlier this year.
Moroder hopes to put out fresh material on the label this summer. “I am so excited to share new music with you and to work with the Casablanca family,” he noted in a statement, before making a pun based around one of his own album titles. “Casablanca from here to eternity.”
“It just makes sense,” he added. “It feels like home.”
