Ellen Allien

Ellen Allien
Ellen Allien in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Ellen Fraatz
Origin	West Berlin, West Germany
Genres	Experimental techno, Techno, IDM, Tech house
Occupation(s)	Vocalist, remixer, producer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1992 to present
Labels	BPitch Control Spectral Sound
Associated acts	Apparat
Website	www.ellenallien.de www.bpitchcontrol.de

Ellen Allien (born in West Berlin as Ellen Fraatz) is a German electronic musician, music producer, and the founder of BPitch Control music label. Her album Stadtkind was dedicated to the city of Berlin, and she cites the culture of reunified Berlin as one of the main inspirations for her music. She sings in both German and English. Her music is best described as a blend of IDM and Techno music, which is dance-floor oriented and has noticeable experimental elements. She currently lives in Berlin.

Ellen Allien was born and grew up in West Berlin. During 1989, she lived in London where she first came into contact with electronic music. When she later returned to Berlin, electronic music had become increasingly popular in Germany. In 1992, she became resident DJ at the Bunker, Tresor, and E-Werk. She started her own show on the Berlin radio station Kiss FM and created her own record label, calling them both "Braincandy". Due to problems with distribution, she gave the Braincandy label up in 1997 and instead began organizing parties with the name, "Pitch Control". Allien created the label BPitch Control in 1999.

She released her first album, Stadtkind, in 2001, and her second album, Berlinette, in 2003. In 2005, after releasing the album Thrills, Allien created a BPitch sublabel called "Memo Musik" for minimal tech and minimal house. Orchestra of Bubbles, a collaboration with Apparat, was released in 2006. During the same year, Allien launched her own fashion line, "Ellen Allien Fashion", which can be seen as "an extension of her philosophy of life".