Ellen Allien: I like to make people laugh and dream

ELLEN ALLIEN SPEAKS ABOUT WHAT MAKES BERLIN’S CLUB SCENE SO UNIQUE, UPCOMING RELEASES ON HER LABELS, PLANS FOR A NEW ALBUM, IMPRESSIONS FROM TOURING IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, HER PARTY “WE ARE NOT ALONE” AND OTHER INTERESTING STUFF

Being one of the leading forces of Berlin’s techno scene, Ellen Allien always carried an incomparable personal touch of her musical style with her, as she describes as “a hard and funny type of energy full of positivity, which can be at same a bit melancholic but not too dark and always with a sense of humor”. This is what all Ellen Allien’s musical affairs are about.

Ellen Allien spreads her influence and approach as the mastermind of her labels – a long-established platform for high-quality electronic music – BPitch, and a new one – responsible for emotional and functional techno UFO Inc. Besides forming the musical policy for the labels by selecting the best and most unusual electronic music from all over the world, Ellen Allien is well-known for her own musical productions – eight solo albums, a bunch of EP’s, remixes and impressive collaborations.

Her music perfectly reflects the spirit and lifestyle of Berlin’s club scene and with a twisted and technically advanced mix of the contemporary techno sound, real rave attitude and some of the weirdest tunes, covers it’s present, past and future. The passion for Berlin, its liberal 24-hour nightlife and unique clubs with special identities is in the DNA of Ellen Allien’s music and could be noticed as well in many music videos which she actively releases for her tracks. As a promoter, she takes an active role in Berlin’s club scene with her parties ‘We Are Not Alone’ which is one of the finest 48 hours of Berlin’s techno adventures that happens bimonthly in the club Griessmuehle.

We had a chance to have an interesting conversation with Ellen Allien during her tour in Mexico about the latest releases on BPitch and UFO Inc., her approaches in creating music videos, what makes Berlin’s club scene so unique, plans for a new album, places in the world where she likes to perform and other interesting stuff.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi! It would be great to know what you have been up to recently in your musical production – do you have any exciting new releases, or maybe plans for a new album or some remixes?

At the moment I have just opened a new label in 2019 called UFO Inc. and started to release a lot of great music there. One of the upcoming releases will be the music by Heidi Sabertooth, she is an artist from New York and she does really great New York weird techno, very loud and noisy, she plays live shows and DJ sets as well. I really love her music. Then I’m going to release Alien Rain which is a project from Berlin.

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Westbam: I still feel the same excitement, plus I have more wisdom

WESTBAM TALKS ABOUT HIS PASSION FOR HIP-HOP, BENEFITS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGIES, FAVORITE COLLABORATIONS ON THE LATEST ALBUM “RISKY SETS”, HIS RECENT APPROACH IN CREATING MUSIC AND VIDEOS AND NEVERENDING EXCITEMENT

Maximillian Lenz, mostly known by his stage name Westbam, is one of the most influential Berlin dj’s, a true raver who was responsible for the massive techno-culture explosion at the edge of the 80s/90s and reaffirmed his position as one of the most interesting and creative artists on this scene during the following decades.

Maximillian started his musical journey with forming punk band Anormal Null in 1979. In the mid 80s he got more interested in dance music and went deeper into Djing. At that point he got his now well known DJ moniker Westbam — a kind of reinvention of Afrika Bambaata’s name that showed his passion for early hip-hop music. As Westbam, he quickly achieved the status of being one of the most interesting and forward-thinking dj’s of his time, the one who was pushing DJing from just selecting songs for the moment to a new art-form that is based on the way of creating musical compositions using records and mixing effects. Starting with playing eclectic mixes of electro, new wave, italo disco and hip-hop in the legendary club Metropol in West Berlin, Westbam soon turned his head to the most futuristic sounds of house and techno.

In 1989, when the Berlin wall came down, techno music and night clubs became one of the most distinctive signs of this new time and Westbam became one of the leading figures in an evolving cultural movement. According to Westbam, techno became at that time a kind of soundtrack of liberation and played an important social and political role especially for East Berliners, and today’s Berlin techno fame is in many ways an echo of that era.

Westbam stood behind the events that pushed the development of this rave scene, as the organizer of the trademark festival MayDay and a dj who played on all legendary Love Parade’s. At the moment, he’s retired from his promoter and event organizer duties and just enjoys himself as an artist who only dedicates himself to creative things like making new music and playing it to the people. He regularly releases his music as well as composing new tracks everyday just for the listening pleasure and in order to make the sets that he plays in clubs and festivals exclusively consist only of his material. Throughout his career, Westbam made a huge number of contemporary dance music hits and epic rave anthems which covered different genres from electro to techno and house music, as well as conceptual albums, remixes and collaborations with big artists that stand far away from the electronic music world like Iggy Pop and Brian Molko. His successful work in this wide range of musical genres always carried a mark of his personal style – always very experimental, energetic and with a sense of humor.

We had a chance to chat with Westbam about his latest album “Risky Sets”, passion for hip-hop culture, benefits of modern technologies, his approach in creating music and videos, retiring from the event business as well as some other interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi! As I understand your main new work is the new album “Risky Sets” that was released just a few months ago? Can you tell a bit about it and did the creation process took a long time?

Well you know, these days, I don’t work on tracks as long as I used to do in the early days of my production – in the 80s and 90s. I believe that a good track must be done fast, and when you are working too long on it, you are losing the main idea. But the hall technical process of making this album happen took a long time as I had a lot of collaborations on “Risky Sets” with different unbelievable superstars. And it was a long way, confirming everything with their management. And as time goes by while you are doing the same work, there comes a moment when you run out of ideas. Because of this long process of confirmation of everything it was evolving for a long time, so at the moment when everything was finally confirmed, I had around 10 versions for each track of the album. And think it all worked well at the end and I’m really satisfied by “Risky Sets”.

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Brandt Bauer Frick: We do pretty much the opposite of most other bands

PAUL FRICK TALKS ABOUT THE LATEST BRANDT BRAUER FRICK ALBUM, HIS MUSICAL PLANS, SOLO WORK, EXCITING COLLABORATION WITH ELECTRONIC MUSIC PIONEERS TANGERINE DREAM AS WELL AS MUCH MORE

Brandt Brauer Frick is one of the most interesting bands in the field of forward-thinking music. Founded in Berlin around ten years ago by the Three Musketeers of contemporary sound – Daniel Brandt, Jan Brauer and Paul Frick; the band achieved the reputation of being a musical project that can always amaze the audience with a fresh, unusual approach and new concepts. They are a perfect example of how so-called “intellectual” music is not at all boring, (as many people think) and it can be playful, challenging and always changing.

Brandt Brauer Frick’s first two albums “You Make Me Real” and “Mr. Machine”, (released by the legendary record label !K7 in 2010/ 2011) were made with a newly-invented and self-developed method of making techno-oriented sound using mostly only acoustic instruments. This unique and groundbreaking method in composing and performing nightclub vibe music with a 10 piece acoustic ensemble made Brandt Brauer Frick widely noticed, and they were soon on tour around the world. During these tours, the band performed as a 10-piece Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble, as well as a trio with their three main members – presenting a more electronic and clubby side of their musical souls.

Their next two albums “Miami” and “Joy” ( released in 2013 and 2016) were much more experimental and highlighted the rich musical background of the band’s members, which incorporated their interest in John Cage’s indeterminacy composing theory, Steve Reich’s minimalism and Dada’s aesthetics. The latest album “Echo” that came out a week ago, goes back to the band’s roots and contains mellower and danceable music forms, compared to their first two albums.

Brandt Brauer Frick’s passion for experiments and finding new forms of self- expression even got them involved in a contemporary opera “Gianni”, whose underlying story of which is the murder of Gianni Versace.

However, all the Brandt Brauer Frick members have a lot of individual work under their belts too- like solo albums and theatre music and sound production for other artists. We had a chance to talk with Paul Frick about the musical vibe and concept of Brandt Brauer Frick’s new album “Echo” which was released only a week ago, his solo work and exciting collaborations that he did recently.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Paul! It would be great to know what you have been up to recently. We guess that probably the main thing on your plate right now is Brandt Brauer Frick’s new album. Is that right? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Yes, indeed. Brandt Brauer Frick recently took over most of my time again. But in the last three years, each of us did many other things too like solo projects, collaborations… We needed that break after so much touring.

Amongst others, Daniel Brandt made two solo albums on the label Erased Tapes, Jan made a lot of theatre music and mixed albums by people like Max Graef, Josa Peit and Wayne Snow. He also mixed my first solo album ‘Second Yard Botanicals’ that appeared last year on Apollo/R&S Records.

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DJ Hell: The Smell of Techno

photo: Greg Gorman

DJ HELL TALKS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL DEEJAY GIGOLO LATEST RELEASES, SHARES MEMORIES ABOUT THE EARLY DAYS OF TECHNO IN BERLIN, HIS TRIAL WITH ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER AND GIVES AN UPDATE ABOUT HIS PROJECTS IN THE FASHION WORLD

Helmut Geier, mostly known as DJ Hell, is one of the most influential figures in the electronic music scene. Right from the start of his career, he stood out from the mainstream tendencies, always looking for a unique style and approach towards making and presenting music. Being a DJ from his teenage years during the late 70’s, by the end of 80’s he was one of the starters of a cultural explosion of techno revolution in Berlin. His passion for moving forward and creating new musical forms and genres made DJ Hell responsible for the birth of electroclash, a new musical style that changed things on electronic music scene during the 90s and into the beginning of the 21st century.

Playing on contradictions was always one of the underlying methods of creating the vibe behind his label, International Deejay Gigolo, which in Hell’s words is more than an ordinary record label and is also a way of thinking and a lifestyle. This well-thought use of contradictions started from his alias, Hell, which can sound demonic for most of the world but means “light” in his native German language.

DJ Hell is also known as one of the first artists that brought humor and pop-art aesthetics into the tough world of techno and got techno connected with the fashion scene. This approach was much reflected in his personal style, which stands far away from a regular picture of a DJ dressed simply in black colors – DJ Hell is famous for his dandy outfits and has done a lot of collaborations with top fashion brands like Hugo Boss and Agent Provocateur in the past. Recently his interest in the fashion industry led him to create his own line of perfume and scarfs.

In his interview for All Andorra DJ Hell talks about International Deejay Gigolo records latest releases and the label’s history, shares memories about the early days of techno in Berlin and his trial with Arnold Schwarzenegger, gives an update about his projects in the fashion world, as well as talking about his favourite collaborations and many other interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Helmut! How are you and what is going in your musical world right now? Are there any interesting releases from International DeeJay Gigolo records that we should be listening to?

Right now the main thing that I’m working on is a special box with many things inside like a vinyl with my latest single, posters, branded Gigolo t-shirts, magnets, a sample of my perfume “Techno” and a CD with 40 songs on it that mostly are unreleased and remastered material from the beginning of the 90’s or the ones that have been released very long ago only on vinyl – pure analog techno. It’s not a regular album release; to have the music that will be included, you will have to buy the whole box. Maybe later I will put it on digital platforms, but the box will come first. It will be a limited edition thing – 500 pieces only and will be released before or after the summer. I still don’t have a name for it, but think a good definition could be – The Past, The Present and The Future. I am working on it every day, editing music and graphics.

Also, we have a CD compilation coming out on Gigolo in a couple of months. It will be called CD 14 and there will be a lot of new artists from the label, like for example Joyce Muniz from Brazil, and some old artists from the 90’s that are not known well now – like Johnny Dangerous.

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