Alec Empire

Alec Empire is a German electronic musician and producer from Charlottenburg, Berlin, born in 1972. He is associated with digital hardcore, as well as ambient techno, breakcore, dark ambient, techno and other forms of electronic and experimental music. He is best known for his work with Atari Teenage Riot, his solo recordings, and his role as founder of Digital Hardcore Recordings.

Early work and influences

Empire starts recording while still at school and forms his first English-language band, Die Kinder, at the age of fourteen. The group supports acts such as Die Toten Hosen. Early influences include rap, breakdancing, punk, acid and techno, and he plays in several bands during the late 1980s. By the beginning of the 1990s he is recording EPs for Force Inc. and its subsidiary Mille Plateaux.

Atari Teenage Riot and Digital Hardcore Recordings

In 1992, Empire forms Atari Teenage Riot with Carl Crack and Hanin Elias. The group combines punk-inspired political themes and shouted vocals with acid synth lines and distorted breakbeats. After a record deal with British Phonogram falls through, he uses the money from that contract to establish Digital Hardcore Recordings in 1994 in Berlin. The label releases material by Empire, Atari Teenage Riot, EC8OR, DJ Bleed and Sonic Subjunkies, and becomes closely associated with the digital hardcore style.

Atari Teenage Riot releases its first album on Digital Hardcore, 1995. The band later reaches a wider audience in the United States through Grand Royal Records, the label run by the Beastie Boys, which signs ATR in 1996 and issues singles by Empire, ATR and EC8OR. Empire is also involved in later ATR activity, and the project remains one of the main associations with his name.

Solo releases and stylistic range

Empire’s early solo and album work appears on Mille Plateaux. These releases include Limited Editions 1990-94, Generation Star Wars and Low On Ice (The Iceland Sessions). His solo output spans isolationist ambient, electro, breakbeat, hard techno and twisted lounge music, alongside more abrasive material. He also releases Hypermodern Jazz 2000.5 and Les Étoiles des Filles Mortes in 1996, and The Destroyer, which is described as an early breakcore-defining album for Digital Hardcore.

Later solo work includes Intelligence and Sacrifice, a double album released on Digital Hardcore Recordings in 2001 and issued later in the West. It sells strongly and wins a Kerrang award. Around this period, Empire performs with a large live line-up including Charlie Clouser, Nic Endo and two drummers. He also records in more selective electro settings with just himself and his equipment on stage.

Later projects, collaborators and labels

After time in London, Empire returns to Berlin and begins working in a different direction. He records Futurist with Nic Endo and a band, with a stronger rock and punk influence and electric guitar at the centre. He later performs with The Hellish Vortex, a live group including Nic Endo, New Yorker David Fisher on electronic percussion, and Londoner Zan Lyons on electric violin and laptop. During this period he also founds the label Eat Your Heart Out.

Empire’s collaborations and side projects include work with Q-Bert and Mixmaster Mike as a DJ, a recording with El-P, and Curse of the Golden Vampire with Techno Animal. He also releases material under names such as DJ 6666, The Destroyer, P.J.P., E.C.P., The King of The Street, Nero, Jaguar and Richard Benson, and he works with Ian Pooley. He remixes extensively and records for labels including Force Inc., Mille Plateaux, Digital Hardcore Recordings, Geist Records and Eat Your Heart Out.

Film work and other releases

In addition to records, Empire scores films, including Richard Wilhelmer’s short The Golden Foretaste of Heaven, which is inspired by his album of the same name. He also releases Shivers and performs live material associated with The Hellish Vortex. His catalogue covers punk-inflected digital hardcore, industrial electronics, breakcore, techno, ambient and related experimental forms.