Naples, Italy · disco · funk

Nu Genea

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Neapolitan disco built out of Mediterranean funk, dub and boogie — sun-bleached grooves sung in dialect, with a live band that pushes them harder.

Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina formed the duo in Berlin in 2014, working first under the name Nu Guinea and releasing a self-titled EP that year. Early sessions with the Nigerian Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen produced the 2015 album The Tony Allen Experiments, work that set the template for the pair's mix of dance rhythm and live playing.

Alongside the labels DNApoli and Famiglia Diocristiana, the duo worked on Napoli Segreta, a vinyl reissue series aimed at preserving Neapolitan dance music from the 1970s and 1980s. A second volume followed in 2020, running parallel to their own records and their wider interest in the city's musical past.

In 2021 the pair changed their name from Nu Guinea to Nu Genea, taking the word from the Greek genéa, meaning birth. They described the change as a rebirth of the styles that have touched the Gulf of Naples over the decades, folding them into their own music rather than simply quoting them.

The same year brought a deal with Carosello Records and a collaboration with French singer Celia Kameni on the single Marechià. Bar Mediterraneo followed in 2022, released through the duo's own NG Records under licence to Carosello, and carried the tour on through France, Russia, Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands.

In spring 2026 Nu Genea released People of the Moon, a record that moves away from the Neapolitan focus of the earlier albums and brings in lyrics across several languages, marking a shift in direction for the duo.

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