BY ALEXANDER CHEVES
Elodie Vitalis, aka ABS8LUTE, did not intend to become a music artist. In her native Paris, she found techno music and fell in love, but she did not feel “legitimate” enough to belong in the DJ booth.
ABS8LUTE met the Hinterhaus team at our Mitte, Berlin HQ and discussed those first steps into her career. “Why should I DJ?” she says. “There were already so many DJs, mostly men.”
Her journey to Berlin, where she’s now establishing herself in the city’s music scene in a big way, has been as much a story of personal growth as it has been about music.
“I always loved music, but I didn’t think I had the legitimacy,” she says. “It felt like it wasn’t my place, especially as a woman of color.”
How Did You Start?
Long before she set foot in the DJ booth, she was active in Parisian nightlife, she says. She worked at the former dance club Le Showcase and was a music journalist for French Mixmag.
She was also editor-in-chief of a webzine run by Beweird, a French agency focused on diversity and inclusion, and she moderated events at Paris Electronic Week, an annual electronic music event in the French capital.
But what set the groundwork for working in music was her passion for vinyl, digging through record shops, and sharing the tracks she found with her friends.
Four years ago, she decided to try DJing. “I thought, I’m passionate about music, so why not try?”
Initially, she felt like an outsider in Paris’s techno scene—a world that often seemed as impenetrable as it was male-dominated.
Why Did You Feel Like an Outsider?
Techno has historically been a subculture rooted in queer and Black communities, originating in Detroit and Chicago in the 1980s. But as it spread across Europe, the scene got whiter, wealthier, and more male-dominated.
Over the years, ABS8LUTE feels it lost some of its inclusivity and activist roots, becoming a commercial culture often as exclusionary as the mainstream music industry.
“Turntables, records, and training were primarily accessible to those with resources, usually men,” she says. “And as a society, we don’t encourage women to explore tech and mechanics, so a resistance to learning these things gets internalized over time.”
This gatekeeping was a persistent barrier in Paris, where she found few spaces that welcomed her and few mentors willing to teach. But these challenges catalyzed her work as a “music activist,” in her words.
What Is Music Activism?
In 2020, just before the world shut down from the Corona pandemic, she posted a message in a Paris Facebook group hoping to find other women to practice music and mixing with. She expected only a few replies.
Instead, it received around 100 responses from women seeking a safe space to learn. Together, a few of them formed Vénus Club, a collective with the mission of increasing visibility for women, people of color, and queer artists and DJs in Paris.
Their project launched in January 2021, offering workshops, mixtapes, and community music nights.
“When clubs reopened after lockdown, we started booking gigs. It was a thrill and surreal that what we’d started online became something real,” she says.
“I started playing in clubs quickly after that.”
What Brought You to Berlin?
By the spring of 2024, after a year of traveling to Berlin to play gigs, ABS8LUTE knew she was ready for a life change. She’d always felt a sense of belonging in Berlin, which she calls a “playground” compared to Paris, which she says is too fast-paced. She says Paris nightlife disconnected from daily life.
“There’s a kind of divide,” she says. “People outgrow the scene as they get older. I felt like I’d be left behind.”
In Berlin, she believes there is a lasting inclusivity in nightlife. The describes the music culture here: “Dancing is a lifelong passion.”
The ease with which she found a new apartment in Berlin—known by many as one of the hardest parts of moving to the city—felt like a cosmic sign.
“It all came together,” she says. “It feels like the city wants me.”
What’s Next for You?
Still in her early days as a Berlin resident, ABS8LUTE reflects on her challenges. “There are still stereotypes around women DJs, especially women of color. People either think I’m ‘cool’ just because I DJ or they think I’m unstable. I’d rather people know me before judging my work.”
She believes techno culture’s embrace of diversity often masks deeper issues. For example, the club scene in Berlin still grapples with consent and safety.
“I’ve seen the darker side of nightlife,” she says, noting that despite efforts to improve, there are still challenges around drugs and inclusivity, too. “I believe there’s a way to balance nightlife with health. The connection to the music can be enough; it doesn’t have to be too hedonistic.”
Her schedule now is relentless—early morning German classes, pole dancing lessons, working with other DJs, and gigs. “I don’t produce music,” she said. “Not yet. Maybe someday.”
She thrives on the scene’s energy even as she admits to occasional bouts of imposter syndrome, particularly when she steps behind the decks at Berghain.
“I never thought I’d play there,” she says. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve it, that others have worked harder or longer than I have.” But in the booth, watching and connecting with the crowd, she remembers how powerful and necessary it is to tell her story and claim her space.
What Does Your Music Activism Involve Now?
ABS8LUTE believes that being an active, healthy nightlife worker must involve a degree of community care. Through her work with Vénus Club and the Paris-based collective Kluster, she offers aspiring DJs guidance and resources she wishes she’d had, particularly in breaking down financial and technical barriers.
“Our goal is to make the scene as accessible as possible,” she says. “To show that anyone, regardless of gender, race, or background, can learn if they have the passion.”
Two years ago, she launched Le Sillage de Vénus, which she says translates to “Venus’s Groove” or “Venus’s Wake”—a long-term DJ mentorship program in Paris. Unlike typical short-term classes, Le Sillage de Vénus spans five months, giving students time to build skills and confidence. Some have already moved from the classroom to the club lineup, which ABS8LUTE finds deeply rewarding.
“Seeing my students succeed and play gigs themselves is the best feeling,” she says.
For now, ABS8LUTE’s home is in Berlin. She still envisions a future where the techno world, both in Paris and Berlin, better represents the vibrant, inclusive roots of its past.
“I hope my story encourages others,” she says. “We all have a place in this industry if we keep pushing. It’s about music, but it’s also about belonging.”
ABS8LUTE is on Instagram or Soundcloud. You can listen to her recent mix for BCCO here:
Words: Alexander Cheves
Pictures: Mara Menzel. Photos at Le Station (Paris) by Iheb Fehri.
