Carmen Rizzo

“Working on this project with Dave Stewart & Greenpeace was not only a privilege but something I felt I needed to do to help the wonderful cause Greenpeace is fighting for...”

The two-time Grammy nominee & underground darling has had a very eclectic career. A frequent figure in album credits from producing, mixing, remixing, programming, co-writing on a range of influential artists ranging from Seal, Alanis Morissette, Coldplay, BT, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cirque du Soleil, Paul Oakenfold, Pete Townshend of The Who to mention only a few. He has also made records with a slew of notable producers, including Trevor Horn, Marius de Vries David Foster, Rob Cavallo and Don Was.

Carmen recently composed his first film. "The power of the game" from acclaimed British director Michael Apted.(“Coal miner’s daughter”, “The world is not enough” (james bond film) “Gorillas in the mist”) and is also currently the president of the Directors Guild of America.) Other recent collaborations have been with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) on a World-beat electronic version of a song for Greenpeace featuring Sarah Mclaughlin, Annie Lennox, Imogen Heap, Natalie Imbruglia to mention a few. Carmen’s also has a extremely credible career as a recording artist under his own name. His current cd “The Lost Art of the Idle Moment” (The Lab/Universal). His first solo album is a lush, cinematic, beat-driven disc that features collaborations with a wide range of guest vocalists including Esthero, Jem, Kate Havnevik, Ladybug Mecca (The Digable Planets), Grant Lee Phillips, Thomas Heinrich, Alpha and Deidre Dubois. USA Today featured the album with his picture on the cover of The Life sections as their #1 pick for there fall music guide. Songs from the album have been licensed to TV shows The O.C., Windfall & Commander in Chief. Taste-makers Jason Bentley, Nic Harcourt & Ann Litt from L.A. radio station KCRW championed the disc before he even had a record deal. The album debuted at #2 on their album chart as well as Sirus & XM Satellite radio.

His other side project Niyaz (Six Degrees) with Azam Ali & Loga Ramin Torkian is a world beat/electronic fusion; “Blending Indian & Persian exoticism and beats that are state of the art” says Billboard. The album which came out in 2005 debuted at #1 on the iTunes world music chart and has also been featured on NPR’s “Day to Day” & PRI “ Voice of America”. The band has been successful touring all over the world playing in India, Tokyo, France, Turkey, Spain, Montreal, and all over the USA. The album was in many top critics top ten albums of the year.

The quality and eclecticism will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Rizzo’s work.

His first break came producing Kristin Vigard in 1990 for Private Music/ BMG, which helped him break into a Los Angeles music scene that included up-and-coming musicians such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, N’dea Davenport of The Brand New Heavies, Jill Jones and Amp Fiddler which all entered into successful careers. Since then, he’s been in high demand as a producer, mixer and remixer.