Session Victim

German house duo Session Victim sample soul, funk, disco, and more in the studio and translate it to an energetic hardware-based live show when they tour. Hauke Freer and Matthias Reiling met while growing up in Lüneburg, a small town in the north of Germany. Together they ran a weekly club night — a necessity in Lüneburg as there was nowhere else to dance to non-commercial music — where they taught themselves to DJ. In 2000 they both left their hometown, with Reiling relocating to Hamburg and Freer moving to Berlin. Over the following years, their creative pursuits diverged: Reiling was heavily involved in Hamburg’s hardcore scene as a member of Two Tribes, while Freer was exploring label management, eventually setting up a vinyl-only imprint, Retreat, alongside Quarion. The duo reconvened in 2007 during a New Year’s Eve party, where the found themselves spontaneously putting a track together, cementing their future as a duo. The following year they were ready to release their debut, 2008′s No Friends EP, which found a home on U.K. label Real Soon. Alongside a string of further EPs, Session Victim worked on their live performances; wanting to do something a little different they chose a pure hardware setup — including a bass guitar — to give each show the kind of energy that isn’t possible using laptops. In preparation for their debut album, 2012′s The Haunted House of House, they signed to Jimpster’s record label, Delusions of Grandeur; the label would also put out their second and third albums, 2014′s See You When You Get There and 2017′s Listen to Your Heart. ~ Liam Martin