Rajko Müller, better known by his stage name Isolée, is a German

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

producer. He is noted for his work in the

microhouse Microhouse, buftech or sometimes just minimal, is a subgenre of house music strongly influenced by minimalism and 1990s techno. History Microhouse has its roots in the minimal techno, bitpop (both developed in the early 1990s), and house (dev ...

genre, reminiscent of

indie electronic Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produce ...

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describ ...

of the early eighties and

ambient techno Ambient techno is a subgenre of techno that incorporates the atmospheric textures of ambient music with the rhythmic elements and production of techno. It was pioneered by 1990s electronic artists such as Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, the Black Dog, P ...

from a decade on. Isolée is credited with creating the very first microhouse record to reach the club charts. Isolée's 2000 album ''Rest'', containing the hit "Beau Mot Plage", was arguably the first microhouse full-length.

History

Rajko Müller was born in

Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

but lived with his family in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , religi ...

from the age of 7 to 12 and went to a French

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

. Around that time, his parents bought an organ for Christmas and he and a school friend attempted to make some

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

. These experiments led them to buy a synthesizer and a drum machine. By the end of the eighties, Rajko grew tired of synthpop and EBM and listened more to

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and ...

and

independent music Independent music (also commonly known as indie music or simply indie) is music that is produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording a ...

. In the early nineties, Müller's friends led him to discover

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture in the late 1970s, as DJs began altering ...

, hip-hop 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 ...

, and he embarked upon a fresh attempt to record electronic music. Müller gave a tape to his friend and DJ Andreas Baumecker, owner of Freundinnen records, who worked in a record store where the members of Playhouse Records used to work. Müller's first Isolée material appeared on the music label ''Playhouse'' in 1997. ''Rest'', Isolée's full-length album, followed in 2000, also on Playhouse. Müller has received wide acclaim, including being listed as the third-best reviewed album of the year on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

for his 2005 album '' We Are Monster''. His work is highly regarded in underground cultures of electronic music connoisseurs and aficionados.

Discography

Original albums * ''Rest'' (2000) * '' We Are Monster'' (2005) * ''Well Spent Youth'' (2011) Compilations and non-album EPs * ''Western Store'' (2006, early singles compilation) * ''System'' (1996) * ''Initiate'' (1998) * ''WesternStore'' (1998) * ''I Owe You'' (1999) * ''It's About'' (2002) * ''Can't Sleep All Night'' (2003) * ''Brazil.com'' (2003) * ''Hermelin'' (2006) * ''October Nightingale'' (2009) * ''Albacares/Les Andalouses'' (2009) * ''The Fantastic Researches of Yushin Maru'' (2010) * ''Allowance'' (2013) * ''Dennis'' (2013) * ''Mangroove' (2017) *

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...

''Candy Apple Red''

References

External links

*
Official website

Discogs: Isolée
* Isoléeat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

Isolée bio

Review of Western Store at Grooves Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isolee German electronic musicians German techno musicians Living people Remixers Year of birth missing (living people)