Alev Lenz

Lenz, the daughter of a Turkish mother and a German father,{{Cite web |date=2020-02-18 |title=With Healing in Her Wings |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/german-turkish-singer-alev-lenz-on-patriarchy-acapella-album-6272905/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}} signed her first publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing in 2001 with the first recordings of her former band "Alev". At first her father was against her plans to become a musician.{{Cite web |last=Bremmer |first=Michael |title="Rock ‘n’ Roller sind Babys, lieb und supersensibel" – in Interview mit der Sängerin Alev Lenz (22) |url=http://www.sz-jugendseite.de/rock-n-roller-sind-babys-lieb-und-supersensibel-in-interview-mit-der-sangerin-alev-lenz-22/ |access-date=12 January 2023 |archive-date=26 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226045054/http://www.sz-jugendseite.de/rock-n-roller-sind-babys-lieb-und-supersensibel-in-interview-mit-der-sangerin-alev-lenz-22/ |url-status=bot: unknown }} After three years of touring and the release of "We live in Paradise", Lenz left the band.

Lenz also left Germany to go to New York City to perform and her original new material. She played Open Mikes and her first concerts as Alev Lenz Solo.

Lenz achieved some success in Turkey, mainly through her several TV appearances on Turkish television on the shows of the popular Turkish showmaster Okan Bayülgen.

Lenz founded her own record company with her management and Groove Attack/Rough Trade in 2008. Her debut album Storytelling Piano Playing Fräulein was released on 13 February 2009, and is available in stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and worldwide on iTunes and Amazon.com. The album was produced in Berlin with Don Philippe, a member of the group Freundeskreis. Her collaborator on her second album was acclaimed drummer and multi-instrumentalist Samuli Kosminen of Mùm and mixed by Jas Shaw (Simian Mobile Disco).{{Cite news|url=http://www.imposemagazine.com/bytes/chatter/alev-lenz-releases-two-headed-girl-to-a-ready-and-waiting-fanbase|title=Alev Lenz Releases Two-Headed Girl to a Ready and Waiting Fanbase – Chatter – Impose Magazine|date=15 June 2016|work=Impose Magazine|access-date=2018-09-02|language=en-US}}

Since the release of her debut album back in 2009, in her home country of Germany, Alev has kept herself busy with gigs in London, New York and across Germany, as well as composing soundtracks for several high-profile German films, and collaborating with and producing for established artists such as Anoushka Shankar on the Grammy-nominated Album, 'Land of Gold’ (Deutsche Grammophon),{{cite web |access-date=18 August 2020 |title=Anoushka Shankar, 'Land of Gold' Credits |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/land-of-gold-mw0002917862/credits}} and Grammy-nominated EP, 'Love Letters’ (Mercury KX){{cite web |access-date=18 August 2020 |title=Love Letters, Anoushka Shankar |url=https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/anoushka-shankar/love-letters}} and Roomful of Teeth.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/arts/music/classical-youtube-moments.html|title=Heavenly Hymn: The 8 Best Classical Music Moments of the Week on YouTube|access-date=2018-09-02|language=en}} Lenz's big breakthrough came in 2016 when her song ‘Fall into Me’ was used in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror episode, ’Hated in the Nation’. Lenz has since been played on NPR All Songs Considered, WNYC New Sounds and mentioned by the New York Times, as the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth have since taken up her song into their live programme. Most recently Alev's single ‘May the Angels’ from ‘3’ featured on season two of critically acclaimed Netflix series Dark.{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5533662/|title=IMDb: Alev Lenz|access-date=18 August 2020|language=en}} The series features songs from Peter Gabriel, Agnes Obel and Apparat, with a score composed by Ben Frost.{{Cite news| url=https://www.insider.com/dark-netflix-music-score-songs-2017-12|title=Netflix's new series 'Dark' has a terrific and unique soundtrack — here are all the best songs featured|date=11 December 2017|language=en}} ‘Splendid Soldiers’, 'Fall into Me'’s Album version, has been featured on the third season of The Rain.{{Cite news| url=https://www.soundtrackmania.net/the-rain-season-3-soundtrack.html |title= The Rain – Season 3 Soundtrack|date=20 October 2020|language=en}} Alev has also contributed vocals to Volker Bertelmann's (Hauschka) score for the US-film Downhill, Stowaway and Netflix movie The Old Guard with Dustin O'Halloran.{{cite web |access-date=20 October 2020 |title=IMDb: Alev Lenz|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5533662/}}

Alev's third studio album ‘3’ was released on Spitfire Audio's SA Recordings, and sample libraries were released in conjunction with the album release.{{Cite news|url=https://www.musictech.net/features/interviews/alev-lenz/|title=Alev Lenz on composing for Black Mirror and creating a sample library from her new album|date=3 December 2019|language=en}}

;Albums:

;;Solo

• Storytelling Piano Playing Fräulein (2009)
• Two-Headed Gïrl (2016)
• 3 (2019)

;Soundtracks

• A Year Ago in Winter (2008) (Caroline Link)
• {{Ill|The Wild Chicks and Life|de|Die Wilden Hühner und das Leben}} (2009)
• Wedding Fever in Campobello (2009)
• Bon appétit (2010)
• {{Ill|Turkish for Beginners (film)|de|3=Türkisch für Anfänger (Film)|lt=Turkish for Beginners}} (2012)
• The Dead and the Living (2012)
• The Girl with Nine Wigs (2013)
• {{Ill|King Ordinary|de|König von Deutschland (Film)}} (2013)
• Hated in the Nation (Black Mirror) (2016)

;Producer

• Two-Headed Gïrl (2016)
• 3 (2019)
• Love Letters Anoushka Shankar (2020)
• Risha Ruba Shamshoum (2021)
• Love Letters P.S. Anoushka Shankar (2021)

;;With Alev

• We live in Paradise
• Broken
• Breakable

• [http://www.alevlenz.com Official website]
• [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5533662 IMDB]
• [https://www.welt.de/welt_print/article1198151/Unser_Fraeulein_am_Klavier.html Die Welt]
• [http://nakedlyexaminedmusic.com/nem124-alev-lenz/ Alev Lenz Interview – Nakedly Examined Music (2020)]

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Category:1982 births

Category:Living people

Category:Turkish singer-songwriters

Category:German people of Turkish descent

Category:Musicians from Munich

Category:German women singer-songwriters

Category:German singer-songwriters

Category:21st-century German women singers