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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Abe Duque: I pulled myself out of the game

ABE DUQUE TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW MUSICAL PLANS, NEW YORK’S NIGHTLIFE IN THE ‘90S, THE OPPRESSION OF THE POLITICALLY CORRECT NARRATIVES, MARTIAL ARTS AS A MEDITATING PROCESS AND OTHER INTERESTING STUFF

Abe Duque has been around in techno music and New York’s nightlife scene for more than a quarter of a century. His powerful and always recognizable sound has provided a few generations of nightclubbers with trippy and unforgettable moments on the dance floors, as Abe Duque’s nights in the legendary Limelight club became the cradle to shape New York’s techno scene during the ‘90s.

However, despite all these impressive credentials, Abe Duque can be described as one of the most underrated artists in the techno world. And this low profile is due to his own informed choice which is the logical continuance of underground roots and once chosen path. In the era of superstar DJs, when an artist became a product of marketing which is pushed by the managers whose main goal is to maximize profits, Abe Duque still keeps the spirit of the 90’s in his music production whose main characteristic is an always moving forward experimental sound with a sense of humor and mostly focusing on the music itself than on the artists ego.

Staying away from deserved blazes of glory, nowadays, Abe Duque has swapped the life of a demanded and actively touring all around the world artist to a happy and harmonic family life in his hometown city New York. He became very picky about the gigs that he performs and does them currently only when he is sure that it is the right place and right moment. But according to Abe’s words soon he will be back on track with a bunch of powerful releases and maybe good techno music lovers will be lucky to catch him again somewhere in the world with his fantastic live shows or DJ sets.

We were lucky to have a chance to talk with Abe about his current lifestyle, his passion for analogue equipment, New York’s nightlife in the 90s,  the oppression of the politically correct narratives in modern society and other curious things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Abe! It seems that you have had a long break from touring and producing music. Will there be any chances to hear some of your new music or to see your gigs soon?

Hi! For the last few years, I’ve been dedicating myself to something else. Basically, my wife got pregnant with twins and I’ve been raising two girls. For me, it is the biggest thing in my life and I decided to drop everything else and dedicate myself to the family 100%. It is very hard to have a family life when you are a DJ because you are traveling all the time, especially the way I was traveling around the world 24/7.

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Carl Craig: We were serenading Detroit and building our idea of the musical future

TECHNO LEGEND CARL CRAIG TALKS ABOUT HIS MUSICAL INFLUENCES, NEW PROJECTS, DETROIT TECHNO SCENE, FAVORITE SETS AND HIS PASSION FOR BREAKING EXPECTATIONS

Carl Craig is one of the leading forces of Detroit techno – a musical genre that was born in the mid 80’s of the previous century and reflected a sorrowful atmosphere of a dying city with closing car factory’s and serious social problems, as well as the passion for futurism, new technologies and desire for a brighter future.

Carl Craig made his first steps in music with a mentorship of one of Detroit’s techno godfathers – Derrick May, who saw a large potential in young 17 years old Carl and helped him to release his first track. This was a lucky start, which helped Carl to get noticed by the expanding audience of followers of the new and groundbreaking for that time techno music.

Right from the start of his musical career Carl Craig achieved a reputation of the artist that was always breaking expectations and had a deep passion for experiments with different musical forms. For different kinds of projects, he had a bunch of monikers like C2, BFC, Paperclip People, 69, Innerzone Orchestra. Mainly the originality of his style is based on bringing the influences of other musical genres into techno music, starting from classical music to jazz, funk and disco. As Carl perfectly describes his adventurous approach in doing music: “I have a bad habit of getting my hands dirty in every little thing, and I really do enjoy it.”

The status of a true legend that formed and influenced much techno music is not having Carl Craig resting on the laurels. He is, maybe even more than ever, full of creative energy that helps him to play dj sets and different kinds of live shows in the best festivals and night clubs all over the world, do new music and run his own label Planet E Communications with a fantastic catalogue of releases that can be described techno’s best golden collection music.

We had a lucky chance to talk with Carl Craig about his new exciting projects, musical influences that formed his style, Detroit’s techno scene, his social activity with running his own foundation, favorite sets as well as many more interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Carl! It will be interesting to know what you have been up to recently in your musical production – some new releases, remixes, interesting collaborations?

Hi! I’ve been working on a new project with my longtime partner Moritz von Oswald and we are almost done with it. Also there is a new Kenny Larkin record coming out that I did a remix for and I’ve done some things with Seth Troxler for his project Lost Soul of Saturn. Also, I’m continuing to do the series of “Detroit Love” compilations on my label, and we just had Stacey Pullen’s record released in this line and a lot of releases are yet to come.

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