Ellen Fraatz, known professionally as Ellen Allien, is a German

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electro ...

ian,

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, and the founder of BPitch Control

music label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...

. Her album '' Stadtkind'' was dedicated to the city of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, and she cites the culture of reunified Berlin as one of the main inspirations for her music. She sings in both German and English. Her music is best described as a blend of IDM and

Techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

music, which is dance-floor oriented and has noticeable experimental elements. She lives in Berlin and calls it the "best city in the world."

Career

Ellen Allien was born and grew up in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

. During 1989, she lived in London where she first came into contact with electronic music. When she later returned to Berlin, electronic music had become increasingly popular in Germany. In 1992, she became resident DJ at the Bunker, Tresor, and E-Werk. She started her own show on the Berlin radio station Kiss FM and created her own record label, calling them both "Braincandy". Due to problems with distribution, she gave the Braincandy label up in 1997 and instead began organizing parties with the name, "Pitch Control". She released her first album, '' Stadtkind'', in 2001, and her second album, '' Berlinette'', in 2003. In 2005, she released the album ''

Thrills Thrills is a Canadian brand of chewing gum. It was originally produced by the O-Pee-Chee company of London, Ontario, Canada which was subsequently bought by Nestle in the late 1980s. It is well known for its purple colour and its distinctive ...

'', followed by '' Orchestra of Bubbles'', a collaboration with Apparat, in 2006. During the same year, Allien launched her own fashion line, "Ellen Allien Fashion". After the minimalistic ''

Sool Sool ( so, Sool, ar, صول) is an administrative region ('' gobol'') in south eastern Somaliland/north western Somalia. It borders Togdheer to the west, Sanaag to the north, Ethiopia to the south and Nugal, Bari to the east. Its capital city ...

'' in 2008, she released her fifth solo album, ''

Dust Dust is made of fine particles of solid matter. On Earth, it generally consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil lifted by wind (an aeolian process), volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in ...

'', in 2010. Allien made a brief appearance in the 2009 electronic music documentary ''

Speaking In Code ''Speaking in Code'' is a character-based documentary directed by Amy Grill about people's obsessions with the techno electronic music lifestyle and the effects on their lives. It follows Modeselektor, the Wighnomy Brothers, Philip Sherburne, M ...

''. Then she worked on the music for the dance performance "Drama Per Musica", which has been premiered in Paris in March 2011 under the direction of Alexandre Roccoli and Sevérine Rième. The accompanying album "LISm" was released in 2013 and, like her DJ sets, unites different musical styles into a homogenous whole. Also the successor "Nost" sets on variety, however within the electronic spectrum. Thus she returns to her technoid underground roots and stays true to her dancefloor principles after about three decades. In 2019 Ellen Allien launched her UFO Inc. label with an EP that features the epic »UFO« which has been on heavy rotation in her DJ sets all summer long. Between »UFO« and the hard-hitting Berlin acid belter »Körpermaschine« on the flipside, the »UFO« EP perfectly captures the energetic hardware sound of Allien’s new imprint, which will be dedicated to a rough and raw approach to techno. Ellen Allien holds residencies in the clubs Nitsa, Barcelona and Circoloco at DC10, Ibiza and is a regular in clubs such as Madrid’s Mondo. She started her already infamous bi-monthly 'We Are Not Alone' raves at Griessmühle in her beloved and vibrant native town Berlin that will guest in other cities around the globe too – just as her in-store record shop happenings under the name Vinylism. You will find her frequently performing festivals i. e. Germany’s MELT, N.A.M.E. Festival in France.

Record labels

Allien created the techno label BPitch Control in 1999. Earlier in her career, around the time she hosted 'Braincandy' on Berlin's Kiss-FM, she launched her first record label name using the same name, this paved the way for the BPitch Control imprint. The label has launched the careers of popular artists, such as

Modeselektor Modeselektor is a German electronic music duo consisting of Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. History The group members met in 1992 in Berlin with group member Szary performing live acid house music at illegal underground parties, under t ...

Paul Kalkbrenner Paul Kalkbrenner () (born 11 June 1977) is a German musician, producer of electronic music and actor. Because he breaks down his tracks into elements that are reassembled onstage, Kalkbrenner is considered a live act, as opposed to a DJ. He is ...

and Apparat. In 2005 Allien created a BPitch sublabel called "Memo Musik" for minimal tech and minimal house.

Discography

Albums

* 2001 – '' Stadtkind'' (BPC021) * 2003 – '' Berlinette'' (BPC065) * 2004 – ''Remix Collection'' (BPC080) * 2005 – ''

'' (BPC106) * 2006 – '' Orchestra of Bubbles'' (BPC125) * 2008 – ''

'' (BPC175) * 2010 – ''

'' (BPC217) * 2013 – '' LISm'' (BPC264) * 2017 – '' Nost'' (BPC330) * 2019 – '' Alientronic'' (BPX001) *2020 – ''AurAA'' (BPX009) * 2021 - "Rosen"

EPs / singles

* 1995 – "Ellen Allien E.P." * 1995 – "Ellen Allien Vol. II ellow Sky (MFS7074-0) * 1997 – "Be Wild" (BRAINCANDY002) * 1997 – "Rockt Krieger" (BRAINCANDY003) * 2000 – "Last Kiss '99" (BPC008) * 2000 – "Dataromance" (BPC013) * 2001 – "Dataromance" (Remixes) (BPC029) * 2001 – "Stadtkind" (Remixes) (BPC030) * 2002 – "Erdbeermund" (BPC041) * 2003 – "Trash Scapes" (Remixes) (BPC066) * 2003 – "Alles Sehen" (Remixes) (BPC073) * 2004 – "Astral" (BPC085) * 2005 – "Magma" (BPC105) * 2005 – "Your Body Is My Body" (BPC113) * 2006 – "Just A Man/Just A Woman" (with

Audion The Audion was an electronic detecting or amplifying vacuum tube invented by American electrical engineer Lee de Forest in 1906.De Forest patented a number of variations of his detector tubes starting in 1906. The patent that most clearly covers ...

) (SPC36) * 2006 – "Down" (Remixes) (BPC116) * 2006 – "Turbo Dreams" (BPC124) * 2006 – "Way Out" (Remixes) (BPC129) * 2006 – "Jet" (Remixes) (BPC135) * 2007 – "Go" (BPC160) * 2008 – "Sprung / Its" (BPC176) * 2008 – "Out Remixes" (BPC178) * 2008 – "Elphine Remixes" (BPC181) * 2008 – "Ondu / Caress" (BPC186) * 2009 – "Lover" (BPC199) * 2010 – "Pump" (BPC209) * 2010 – "Flashy Flashy" (BPC216) * 2011 – "Dust (remixes)" EP * 2014 – "Freak" EP * 2015 – "Allien RMXS" (BPC313) * 2015 – "High" (BPC315) * 2016 – "Turn Off Your Mind" (BPC324) * 2016 – "Landing XX" (BPC328) * 2018 – "Take A Stand" (NONPLUS064) * 2019 – "Ufo" (UFO INC001) * 2019 – "La Música Es Dios" (UFO INC003) * 2020 - "Auraa" * 2021 - "Rosen EP"

Mix CDs

* 2001 – ''Flieg mit Ellen Allien'' ("Fly with Ellen Allien") * 2002 – ''Weiss.Mix'' ("White mix") * 2004 – ''My Parade'' * 2007 – '' Fabric 34: Ellen Allien'' * 2007 – ''Time Out Presents – The Other Side: Berlin'' * 2007 – ''Bpitch Control Camping Compilation 03'' * 2008 – ''Boogybytes, vol. 04'' * 2010 – ''Watergate 05'' * 2011 – ''On The Road Mix (Bpitch Control) – For the German issue of DJMag''

Remixes

* 1996 – Gut-Humpe – "Butterpump (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 1996 – Gut-Humpe – "Butter (Ellen Allien dub)" * 2001 – Malaria! – "Eifersucht (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2001 –

Miss Kittin Caroline Hervé (born 1973), known professionally as Miss Kittin, is a French electronic music producer, DJ, singer, and songwriter. Since rising to prominence in 1998 for her singles "1982" and "Frank Sinatra" with The Hacker, she has worked ...

& Goldenboy – " Rippin Kittin (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2001 – PeterLicht – "Die Transsylvanische Verwandte Ist Da (Ellen Allien Fun Maniac mix)" * 2002 – Covenant – "Bullet (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2003 – Apparat – "Koax (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2003 – Barbara Morgenstern – "Aus Heiterem Himmel (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2003 – OMR – "The Way We Have Chosen (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2003 – Sascha Funke – "Forms And Shapes (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2003 – Vicknoise – "Chromosoma 23 (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2004 – Gold Chains – "Let's Get It On (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2004 – Miss Yetti – "Marguerite (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2004 – Neulander – "Sex, God + Money (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2005 – George Thompson – "Laid Back Snack Attack (Ellen Allien Via mix)" * 2006 –

– "Just A Man (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2007 –

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical colla ...

– "Cellphone's Dead (Ellen Allien rmx)" * 2007 – Louderbach – "Season 6 (Ellen Allien Away rmx)" * 2007 –

Safety Scissors Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly dif ...

– "Where Is Germany And How Do I Get There (Ellen Allien Germany rmx)" * 2009 – Uffie – "Pop The Glock (Ellen Allien Bang The Glock Mix 2009)" * 2010 – We Love – "Hide Me (Ellen Allien Remix)" (BPitch Control) * 2011 –

Moderat Moderat is a German electronic music supergroup originating in Berlin between Sascha Ring, also known as Apparat, and Modeselektor members Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. The band have released four studio albums to date, their most recent ...

– "Seamonkey (Ellen Allien Remix)" (BPitch Control) * 2011 –

AUX 88 AUX 88 is an electro group from Michigan, United States. AUX 88 is composed of Tom Tom (Tommy Hamilton) and Keith Tucker (DJ name DJ K1.) and BJ - William (POSATRONIX) Smith (BJ)and Anthony Horton (Blak Tony). The group was originally formed a ...

– "Real To Reel (Ellen Allien Remix)" (Puzzlebox Records) * 2012 –

Telefon Tel Aviv Telefon Tel Aviv is a New Orleans–derived, Chicago-based American electronic music act, formerly comprising Charles Cooper and Joshua Eustis. Since Cooper's accidental death in 2009, Telefon Tel Aviv has continued with Eustis as the sole officia ...

– "The Birds (Ellen Allien Remix)" (BPitch Control) * 2014 – Shinedoe – "Panomanic (Ellen Allien Remix)" (Intacto Records) * 2017 – Skinnerbox – "Gender (Ellen Allien Remix)" (Turbo) * 2017 –

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depech ...

- "Cover me (Ellen Allien U.F.O. Remix)" (Mute Records) * 2018 –

Mount Kimbie Mount Kimbie is an English electronic music duo consisting of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos. Formed in 2008, the duo expanded on the musical template of the UK dubstep scene, releasing early EPs '' Maybes'' and '' Sketch on Glass'' to critical ...

- "T.A.M.E.D. (Ellen Allien U.F.O. Rmx)" (Warp Records) * 2019 –

Loco Dice Loco Dice (born Yassine Ben Achour on 10 August 1974) is a German DJ and electronic music producer born and based in Düsseldorf, Germany. He is best known for his work in the house and tech house genres and his residencies at Ibiza nightclubs ...

- "We're Alive (Ellen Allien About XX Remix)" (Desolat) * 2019 – Shlømo - "Mercurial Skin (Ellen Allien Remix)" (Taapion Records) * 2020 – Amotik - "Tetalis (Ellen Allien Remix)" (AMOTIK)

References

External links

*
Orchestra of Bubbles Webpage

RBMA Radio On Demand - Live at six d.o.g.s - Ellen Allien (BPitch Control, Berlin)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allien, Ellen 1968 births BPitch Control artists Women DJs German women pop singers German women singer-songwriters German singer-songwriters German record producers German techno musicians German women record producers Intelligent dance musicians Living people Singers from Berlin Synth-pop singers Women in electronic music Musical groups from Berlin