Pioneering electronic musician Ellen Allien doesn’t know how to slow down. Rising through the Berlin club scene of the last two decades as a prominent DJ, fashion designer, and leading force behind record label BPitch, the German-born artist helped change the way people think about dance music and influenced countless musicians who have come in her wake. “LISm,” her new album, is a reworking of the music she created for “Drama per Musica,” Alexandre Roccoli and Severine Rieme’s dance performance that premiered in 2011 in Paris. In an e-mail exchange, ARTINFO’s Craig Hubert spoke to Allien, 43, about her interest in dance, the differences between her new album and previous work, and why “LISm” is a journey.
How did you come to compose for the Drama Per Musica?
Alexandre Roccoli asked me if I would like to do the music for the performance and to act on stage. I liked the story. It’s about countercultures in the ’50s in New York transferred into the Berlin techno culture. Very abstract: a sinking ship on stage, huge sails were installed. The ship was sinking while the dancers and me as a captain tried to guide the sails and to avoid the ship to perish. Microphones were placed on stage to transmit the action into the room, very industrial sounds. “Drama per Musica” was performed only once at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
How was the process of making the music for “Drama Per Musica” different than on previous albums?
The process was completely different then doing an album. There was the story, the stage setting, and the timing. Composing a soundtrack is another journey. Being liberated of making track after track gives an easier possibility to tell a story.
Were you interested in contemporary dance before you worked on “Drama per Musica”? Do you see a connection between contemporary dance and the dance floor of clubs?
I became a DJ because I love to dance. I studied acrobatic dance in a private school in Berlin for one year, or more. Dancing and moving to music in clubs is my job and passion. This fits together well. To create something amazing needs time; there is unimportant stuff in this field. In one of my clips, “Trash Scapes,” we work with dance elements, also for “Bim,” more in an abstract way I dance and play with objects. “Take Me Out” is a dance clip.
Would you be interested in collaborating on other mixed-media performances in the future? Or soundtracks for film?
Yes, definitely. I would like to start with something small and to expand it once it is intense. To make film music would be also very exciting for me, to put music on images is fascinating.
Why did you decide to rework the music for the album a year after the initial performance?
There was the possibility to tour with “Drama per Musica,” but at that time my bookings were all done and there were no more free dates. While listening to it during the time I felt going back to the studio I realized that there was too much good stuff to let it “die” on my hard drive. Filtering out all the recordings I liked, I went to the studio with my co-producer Bruno Pronsato. We recorded my voice, let Philli Thimm play the guitar, and interweaved new strings and lot of new parts. Like this, a free faithfully real piece of art arose for me. Something I was longing for, full of desire without thinking about what it will be at the end. Reflecting my musical affection of sounds, without searching to make a hit, only to create an atmosphere, to tickle the abstract.
How has the music changed from the original performance on stage to the record?
“Drama per Musica” has different texts used in a different way and the story is something completely else. “LISm” is a personal work with its own elements and a different message.
Why the choice to keep it as one long track for the record?
It is a journey through my universe, an experiment and not the song or track that has to be a hit.
You called “LISm” a “personal record.” How so?
“LISm” is telling my emotions.
Do you have plans to bring the music from “LISm” into a live setting?
I don’t know yet – I was not thinking about that while doing “LISm.” For the moment there are no plans. It was produced without the pressure to tour. “LISm” is standing for itself.