Helena Hauff

Helena Hauff built her reputation on hardware and selection. Her sets run through acid, electro, EBM and post-punk, her records are made on analogue machines and her biography is short on fuss: a home club in Hamburg and a label of her own. That combination carried her from the Golden Pudel to a BBC Radio 1 residency and to festival bills across Europe.

Hamburg, the Golden Pudel and Art School

Hauff was born in Hamburg and is still based there, according to her Ninja Tune biography and Wikipedia. Her birth date is not published in any source we could verify, so we do not give an age. The Ninja Tune biography says she studied Fine Art and then Systematic Music Science and Physics, and Wikipedia says she studied fine art, physics and systematic music science. In a 2017 Crack Magazine profile she says she dropped out to pursue music full time.

Her musical home was the Golden Pudel, the small portside club in Hamburg, which she discovered as a teenager and later called a playground. She went on to work as a DJ there and hosted a night called Birds and Other Instruments. When the Pudel was destroyed by fire in February 2016, she played benefit events to help repair it, Crack reports. She also told Crack that she borrowed CDs from the library and recorded tracks onto cassette as a teenager, and that she produces exclusively on analogue machines including a Juno-60, a Roland 303 and an MPC.

Early Records and the Return to Disorder Label

Her debut record, the Actio Reactio EP, appeared in 2013, followed by a run of releases on labels including James Dean Brown's Hypnobeat. Ninja Tune's biography lists PAN, Lux Rec, Panzerkreuz and Handmade Birds among her early labels. A Tape, a cassette-only collection of her earliest recordings, came out in 2015 on the Dallas label Handmade Birds. That year she also founded her own label, Return to Disorder, which Crack says launched with an EP by the Leicester psych-rock band Children of Leir. Wikipedia lists her debut album, Discreet Desires, as a 2015 release on Werkdiscs, a Ninja Tune subsidiary run by Actress, and says Rolling Stone put it at number 19 on its list of the 20 best EDM and electronic albums of 2015.

The sound is stripped-down. Wikipedia describes it as stripped-down techno and electro recorded on strictly analogue gear, with influences from acid house, EBM and industrial music.

Essential Mix, Qualm and the Ninja Tune Years

The breakthrough year was 2017. She began a BBC Radio 1 residency in January, according to Crack, and made her Essential Mix debut on 25 February, two hours of techno, electro and acid. In December, she became the first woman named BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix of the Year, as Wikipedia records. Her EP Have You Been There, Have You Seen It followed on Ninja Tune on 27 October 2017, and her second album, Qualm, came out on Ninja Tune on 3 August 2018. Ninja Tune describes it as a return to jamming on her machines, with the aim of making something powerful without too many instruments and layers.

Her live profile rose with the records. Wikipedia lists her at Movement in Detroit in May 2018, AVA Festival in Belfast and Dekmantel in Amsterdam that year. The Crack profile listed her for London's Sunfall in August 2017 and for Dimensions in Croatia. The Rewire festival in The Hague put her on its 2017 bill next to Jeff Mills, as noted on our Rewire page. Gottwood's past bills, according to press reports compiled on that page, include her too, and RTS.FM's Printworks coverage lists her among the artists who played the London venue. In November 2023 she appeared on the first volume of Len Faki's Hardspace remix series, alongside Viers, Resist 101 and Ectomorph.

Living With Ants, Ladybirds and Tresor

The Living with Ants EP appeared in 2019, and in 2021 she released the Futuros EP with The Exaltics. Living With Ladybirds followed in 2022 on fabric Originals, Mixmag reports. On 15 November 2024 she released Multiply Your Absurdities, her debut on Tresor Records, her first new EP in more than two years. The three tracks are "Multiplying My Absurdities", "Punks In The Gym" and "Humanoid Fruit". The lead single, "Humanoid Fruit", came with a video by filmmaker Bahar Noorizadeh, and the track first appeared in the soundtrack to Noorizadeh's art piece Teslaism, shown at Tresor's 31st birthday in 2022.

2026: Dekmantel, NEOPOP and Grauzone

Hauff's 2026 calendar is festival-heavy. Resident Advisor lists her on the Dekmantel 2026 bill, which ran in the Amsterdamse Bos from 29 July to 2 August. See our Dekmantel page for the festival's history. A Mixmag report dated 12 March 2026 names her in a back-to-back set with Imogen at NEOPOP in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, from 6 to 8 August. She was also booked for the Grauzone festival.

FAQ

How old is Helena Hauff?

Helena Hauff's birth date is not published in any source we could verify, so we do not state an age. Her debut EP came out in 2013 and she was named BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix of the Year in 2017.

Where is Helena Hauff from?

She was born in Hamburg, Germany, according to her Ninja Tune biography, and is still based there.

What nationality is Helena Hauff?

German. She is from Hamburg and based in Hamburg.

Who is Helena Hauff?

Helena Hauff is a German DJ and producer from Hamburg. She is known for analogue acid, electro, EBM and techno, runs the label Return to Disorder and has released on Werkdiscs, Ninja Tune and Tresor Records.

What is Return to Disorder?

Return to Disorder is Helena Hauff's own label, founded in 2015, with an EP by Children of Leir among its first releases, according to Crack. It has released music from artists working in techno and electro.

What is Helena Hauff's best-known album?

Her albums are Discreet Desires (2015, Werkdiscs) and Qualm (3 August 2018, Ninja Tune). Rolling Stone ranked Discreet Desires at number 19 on its list of the 20 best EDM and electronic albums of 2015, according to Wikipedia.

What was Helena Hauff's Essential Mix award?

In December 2017 she became the first woman to be named BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix of the Year. Her debut Essential Mix aired in February 2017.

What is Helena Hauff's latest release?

Multiply Your Absurdities, her first Tresor Records EP, was released on 15 November 2024 and contains three tracks. Her previous EP, Living With Ladybirds, came out on fabric Originals in 2022.

What does Helena Hauff's music sound like?

Wikipedia describes stripped-down techno and electro recorded on analogue equipment, with influences from acid house, EBM and industrial music. Her DJ sets, according to Ninja Tune, span acid, electro, EBM, techno and post-punk.

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