THREE computer whizkids are living an electric dream after putting their IT skills to creative use by launching an album.

The Darlington trio, brothers Luigi and Marco Amicucci and their friend Richard Moon, have formed Populator, an electronic pop music ensemble, and spent the past year working on a new album, POP, which has just been launched on the internet and CD.

All tracks are written, performed and produced by the three whose day jobs are all in IT. They feel their efforts have been boosted by a revival in Eighties music being led by pop stars like Little Boots and Lady GaGa. “Luigi and I have been tinkering with electronic music for some time and with Richard having released his own solo acoustic album, we thought it would be a good opportunity to do something different,” says Marco.

Richard provided the vocals, Luigi the programming and everyone working on lyrics, composition and production.

The result is an eight-track release mixing dancefloor vibes, retro synthpop and electro ballads. The techno theme inspired the band’s name, which is an IT term, and the artwork, which uses a binary motif. Luigi says: “We have been into electronic music for as long as we can remember and wanted to produce an album that we didn’t think was out there.”

Marco adds: “A lot of musicians wait around for a record deal but with modern technology you don’t have to. Ten years ago you wouldn’t have dreamt of doing something like this but with our backgrounds in IT, graphic design and music it was possible, at very little cost, to produce something industry standard.”

POP is available through the official website, populator.co.uk, and the band is currently setting up a distribution deal with iTunes and Amazon and are also aiming for the European market.