Ellen Allien - Fabric 34

The world is Ellen Allien's canvas, and what a colourful picture she paints. Thriving on imagination and inspiration, the Berliner is continually shifting shapes and blossoming under an impressive variety of creative lights. Whether she's producing music that challenges the electronic world, or adhering to her globe-encompassing DJing schedule, or managing the phenomenal BPitch Control, or designing for her unique new fashion label - Ellen Allien, a veritable force to be reckoned with, is artistically infinite. She began carving a path for herself after the Berlin wall came down and her beloved city opened wide to new possibilities, including the innovative beat that got the East and West dancing together: techno. After her days as a disillusioned hip hopper, she was instantly hooked by techno's allure and fell deep into a wild love affair with electronic music and machines.

"The whole (hip hop) scene got on my nerves and I therefore got more interested in electronic music. There were so many interesting people – artists, gay people, freaks…With all those people I felt more connected. And I could finally feel free as a woman in a club – no harassment. In 1992 I started working at a bar, Fischlabor, whose owner also owned Tresor, and one day spun some records there. This got regular and I later started my own radio shows "Braincandy". I then started to play at E-Werk and Tresor, which became my resident clubs. It was a whole new environment for me, a great "Do it yourself" attitude."- Ellen Allien

Berlin, now a city praised and celebrated for its artistic freedom, is the perfect place for a visionary like Ellen to flourish, and she wears her love of the city on her sleeve – album sleeves included. Her first artist album Stadtkind ("City Child") was a tender journey into the realms of self-exploration, and her second, Berlinette, gracefully experimented with digital recording, vocals and instrumentation. Thrills, arguably one of her most distinctive and influential albums to date, was most recently followed by her wondrous collaboration with Shitkatapult's Apparat (Sascha Ring), Orchestra Of Bubbles. Her latest remixes have seen her working with inventive likeminded artists, including Thom Yorke, Troy Pierce, Kate Wax and Beck. When not busy in the studio with her expressive music that still has yet to be aptly described ("electech" is the word she uses herself), Ellen is excitedly sourcing new sounds for the ever-thriving BPitch or for the many dance floors around the world that crave her diverse sonic ingenuity.

"I like playing gigs and I like filling rooms with music and sharing music with people. It's always a challenge to get people going. And each club is different and needs a different atmosphere. My vision is to master each moment as something special. Like last week - I played three gigs in a row - first in Berlin, a 7 hour set. Next day France, Villa Rouge, a great gay club. Then I played in Italy in one of the best clubs - Tenx. An overwhelming atmosphere . And very soon I'll play at a big fashion show in New York where the 100 most important New Yorkers are invited - so DJing is really interesting and fun!"- Ellen Allien

As with everything else she touches, on Fabric 34, Ellen Allien has imaginatively created a work of art that is both timely and timeless. Whereas every record is a complete experience in itself, this seductive mix as a whole shines bright with a powerful synergy. Moving and evocative, Ellen Allien has attributed human elements to the infallibly machine-like; it's almost possible to hear poetry in wordless music as each instrument sings a heart-pulling love song to the beat. Similar to how she manages to find pop sensibilities in the most unpopular ideas, the mix combines as many different sounds as it does contradictory elements: the music wraps warmly around speakers sounding raw yet delicate, playful yet rigorous, touchable yet entirely intangible.

"I wanted to do an analogue mix, by hand. I used my favourite records of last year and the newest ones. I like analogue! And I like to hear how one has to manipulate the mix until it's tight. I like the mix because to me it's the ideal club mix that I personally would like to hear in a club. It's also a nice memory for me – I can remember every record being played by myself in a club. And when I now listen to the mix I can recall all the great moments." – Ellen Allien