Son of the three-time Oscar nominee and most prolific composer for movies Carlo Rustichelli, the eclectic Paolo studied composition and orchestra conducting at Accademia Chigiana, as well as classical piano studies. He started his career at age 16 simultaneously as a soundtrack composer and as a rock keyboard player with the album "Opera Prima"on RCA Records, considered by critics a Rock progressive masterpiece.

As a teenage prodigy, Paolo pioneered the use of the mono synth ARP 2600 in Dino Risi's "In Nome del Popolo Italiano", and followed with subsequent score for the Italian cult film Fernando Di Leo's "Razza Violenta". Both scores were entirely made with both the Yamaha CS80 polysynth and with the first sampler machine of the world, the Fairlight CMI, making Paolo one of the first composer to made a soundtrack entirely with synths.

In 1991 Paolo moved from Rome to Los Angeles.In 1995 he released the solo album "Mystic Jazz" (called "Capri" in the US, by PolyGram records) which was the first Italian jazz-rock album released worldwide by PolyGram records. As a pioneer musical attempt It achieved "Chill out music"genre success (Buddha bar compilations) and proved extremely influential for smooth jazz progressive style.

Among his album projects, Paolo recorded, performed and produced for rock-jazz superstars like Carlos Santana and Miles Davis.In 1997 he released the album "Mystic Man" in the US through Island Records, which featured the legendary Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Andy Summers and the disco diva Jill Jones.

In that same year 97, Gavin and Radio & Records (Billboard) reported the song "Paisa" from Paolo's album "Mystic Man" had reached the Top 10 on the U.S. NAC chart ( Smooth Jazz ).

In 2002 Paolo composed, arranged and produced the song "Kyrie" for Placido Domingo's Sacred Songs album for 250 elements orchestra.

The album "Neopagan", completely made with state-of-the-art plug-in technology, charted in the US Radio charts in 2006 with the song "My Geisha".

The single "Soul Italiano" (2011) has been at the Top Ten radio charts for seven weeks.

As a Movie score composer he has scored more than 100 movies for theatrical and TV releases.