Ellen Allien
Dust (BPitch Control)

Ellen Allien is on the go: as a DJ, producer, label owner and fashion producer she is not only crossing medias, but rather tries connecting all available genres in independent culture. The Berlin based whirlwind started her profession in the late 90’s, shortly after the wall came down. But her passion for music started a long time before in her childhood: teaching herself how to read notes and a jukebox with a collection of singles in her room. As a kid she idolized David Bowie. Not surprisingly, Ellen Allien is probably the closest person techno boasts to Bowie – an ambitious innovator and powerhouse. She shapeshifts nearly as often as she packs a crate of 12”s and jumps on a red-eye. She also tries to become visually unique: her album covers depict a fierce, intelligent lady lording over imaginary computer landscapes, and they’re often analogies for what’s going on inside. Meanwhile she is about to release her fifth solo album Dust (BPC217), which will come out in May 2010. Like the previous ones, Sool, Thrills, Berlinette, and Stadtkind, this shows not only a remarkable musical development Ellen Allien has gained over the years, but also her ability of keeping the threads together. Le fils rouge is still Berlin for her, even when global living and the precarious nature of our planet and life influence her in general.

Besides that, Ellen’s current modus operandi is based on her label BPitch Control she founded in 1999. BPitch Control is one of the most successful independent labels in Berlin, which has been releasing a host of boundary-pushing techno, electro, and breaks by international producers like Sascha Funke, Kiki, Moderat, Modeselektor, Paul Kalkbrenner, Chaim, Zander VT, Fuckpony, Thomas Muller, Telefon Tel Aviv and more. BPitch’s mentality is influenced by Berlin’s counterculture; in some ways BPitch Control represents the musical and thus cultural and creative movement, which flourished in Berlin over the past ten years.

In 2006 Ellen Allien launched her own fashion line, which can be seen as an extension of her philosophy of life. “ellen allien fashion” combines a smart perspective onto fashion, music, art, and traveling to an overarching existence, which is meant to be shared. Exploring the whole globe, street life, feeling the world on the skin, Ellen Allien develops her own intuition for material, forms and designs. In her most recent collection NIGHT FLOWERS (ellen allien fashion spring/summer 2010), she created a complete look made of a sensual mixture of black floral lace, white and black floral stitched cotton and delicate summer wool. Featuring hazy prints of dancing people on loose cut t-shirts, each detail transports the feeling of Night Flowers -- “we are the night flowers, and in those special moments, when the music and the crowd become one, we magically blossom at the turn of dusk….”

back to top