ASCO Interview at ADE 2025

Funktasy Magazine Exclusive Interviews presents our special sit-down with ASCO, the Italian DJ, producer, and visionary artist behind the groundbreaking Symphony of CAOS project — recorded live at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) 2025. In this in-depth conversation, ASCO opens up about his musical journey, his signature fusion of orchestral conducting with electronic music, his creative process, the evolution of his CAOS concept, and the inspiration behind blending classical elements with modern festival energy. We also talk about his upcoming projects, international touring, and his connection with Funktasy and the global EDM community. If you’re a fan of powerful, cinematic electronic music or curious about how orchestras and DJ culture can merge into one explosive experience, this interview is a must-watch.

Okay guys, day 3 AD 2025 another exclusive Funktasy Magazine interview and here I’m very proud to be sitting with ASCO Italian DJ orchestral conductor extraordinaire maestro we’re very happy to have you here. How are you feeling?

Thanks for having me. I feel really really good. Um these days are busy but I’m trying to stay chilling during the night to be fresh during the day for the interviews. So, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

So, it’s been a very busy time for you of late.

Yeah, busy time in general cause I’m building my entire career like this month cause everything is growing up so fast. Uh I’m feeling so happy but in the meantime so busy. I don’t have time even to go to the gym, it is one of my obsessions. So, I’m trying to do everything properly but it it’s a really busy period for me of my life.

That’s that’s incredible. It’s sad to sacrifice the gym, but I guess the the music comes first in that instance. So, let’s just go through your your week at AD. Is there anything in particular that you’ve done that you’ve enjoyed or something that’s uh yeah, something that stood out to you in particular that you’ve done this week?

Yeah, I’ve been here just two days just for the interviews. But it’s crazy because in the past like 10 years ago I’ve been here in Amsterdam during ADE cause I worked for a radio station in Italy and my job was doing interview. So now it’s crazy to become here again and I’m the artist in the in the opposite side, you know. Uh so for me it’s like uh like a dream I’m living and uh it’s uh probably this the the main interesting uh part of these days here.

Now you’re on the other side of events. Now everything switched around. So let’s get into one of your most orchestral, your grand your your baby almost symphony chaos symphony. Symphony of chaos. How’s that been going? How did how did you develop the idea and how did everything get going? And once you’ve talked about that, can you talk to us also about the complexity behind the whole project because you’ve got so many moving elements involved. You’ve got the orchestra, the conducting, the technical arrangements. So just give us a whole run through everything. Back to back to front, how everything goes.

So everything started um during uh the the pandemic. I’m I was trying to to create something new for the uh for the live stream with contamination from other arts. So I invited to my live stream uh ballet dancers uh trampolinists um uh and musicians too. Uh so when the when I started to do this live stream on on social a lot of people really liked it also people that was out of the dance music industry and I try to understand this feeling this um this um this new marketing um and um when the COVID ends finally I decide with the with the mayor of my hometown to create a big show in my my city.

And I remember that uh when I was younger and I was just I was starting to produce music. One of my reference was Armin Van Buuren. And I remember that he made a show with with an orchestra. And for me was like, wow, this is the main goal for an artist to to create a concert with an orchestra. So I tell to my mayor, okay, let’s do something like that. But I didn’t know nothing about it because I was a DJ. I have a bachelor in electronic music but didn’t know nothing about classical music.

But I started to to understand what’s uh what’s behind in this world. I found good people that uh believed in my vision. And they helps me a lot to to create the first part of everything, like my orchestrator uh guiding me to write music for the orchestra the scripts it’s a something so different instead of imaginate something and and make it through a DAW like Ableton or something like that.

So um thanks to these people I built the first show. Um it was like uh uh me in the center with the with musician around me. Uh but something was like not enough. Uh so the the coordinator of my orchestra told me, “ASCO, you basically uh brought the music. You explain the music to the orchestra. uh when you have the the results uh you just need to direct this orchestra.” And I told him, “You’re crazy. I never studied.” They said, “Okay, you should study.”

And I started to study this. Fun fact, the first time uh um I go back home after this conversation, I open YouTube and I wrote “how to conduct an orchestra.” We’ve all been there. But yeah, through these videos I found a good maestro in Italy called Bto. I wrote him like “please teach me.” Um and he started teaching me two times per week for one year.

So last uh last year for the first time in in uh in my life I conducted an orchestra in front of the people and now the concept is basically when I’m in front of the orchestra and with my back to the audience I will conduct the harmony of the orchestra. Then when I will put myself in face of the audience uh I drop the techno music with my with my stuff on the on um on my console.

So it’s like this this um this difference between the duality from harmony and chaos—from the orchestra and the techno drops. So people really like it at the moment. It’s uh it’s incredible that I I have in front of me on my shows people like uh 20, 30, 40 people um families with child. It’s crazy cause it’s like a mainstream project with classical music and techno music. So sounds like strange but it works. So I’m super happy about it.

It works beautifully well honestly it’s a very novel very new concept and it must be— but how do you balance then you’re talking about that duality so you’re conducting the harmony of the orchestra and at the same time you’re thinking also about the playing on the consoles so is that something difficult that you had to adapt to something took a bit of time or is that just very natural just you flowed into the role easily.

I’m trying to to study everything in uh pre-production you know to understand when uh I mean everything is uh related to the tracks. Before Symphony of Chaos, I thinking about how to make a track was like, “Okay, I need I want to do this song cause it will works on uh on Beatport or on uh Spotify.” Now, uh the idea is uh um I need to prepare this track cause it needs to work on my show.

So, preparing the track, I know when I have to stay in front of the orchestra and when I can just play music for the audience. Uh so everything is already prepared. So when I study the track list, I know when I have to stay in front of the orchestra and when I have to stay in front of the audience playing music.

Um everything is already wrote on my score so I know when to do something. Uh and everything is already prepared too during the rehearsals uh with the orchestra with the Lilica choir. So we are prepared when live is the results of a lot of preparation.

It’s the whole planning, the rehearsals that just comes together in that moment. I just want to ask you too, what’s the emotion when you get off stage after such a grand production? What do you feel when you’re done? Cuz there must be a rush of adrenaline, emotions, everything, the highs of the lights, everything, the orchestra—it’s magnificent. So how do you always feel getting off stage afterwards?

It’s incredible all the time. Especially, it’s crazy cause I feel a lot of emotions during the rehearsals cause during the rehearsals I feel I’m free to feel the the emotions of everything cause I’m there just trying to coordinate, to explain, and I can hear the sound from the orchestra so so well. During the live it’s just making everything perfect.

So uh during the live sometimes I lost the the feelings just to to for a good performance but during the rehearsals I obviously have goosebumps till now when I have a new song that I’m to play and I heard for the first time played from the orchestra it’s like it’s like incredible. It’s uh it’s uh unbelievable. I’m speechless regarding this really.

Yeah it’s it’s a magical experience almost even watching it. It’s crazy. But um you could talk about this all day really, but I’ll just go on a concluding question. I will ask you what future plans you have ahead of you, your ambitions for the next years. Is there anything that you’re planning or in the works that’s coming also for the Symphony of Chaos? Is there anything else that you’re planning?

Yeah, we have a lot of plans. Uh discography side, I will release singles on Warner Music Italy. They really believe on my project and we will build music um like mainstream but with a classical mood inside. Um and regarding shows, we just launched the European tour. Uh we will be of course in Italy in my country. Uh then France, um the Netherlands, um Spain, um we’ll be in Turkey. Czech Republic, the program is huge and yeah, it’s crazy. It’s the best part of my life.

Well, well, there’s a lot ahead of you still. So, we’re really looking forward to following you and we’re really sure that there’s many great things to come. Thank you very much for joining us ASCO. I wish you all the best for the future.

Thanks for having me. Thank you very much. Thank you.