Session Victim are a

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

duo formed in 2007 in

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

, Germany by Hauke Freer and Matthias Reiling. Known for their vinyl-only DJ sets and hardware-based live shows, they have released five studio albums: ''The Haunted House Of House'' (2012), ''See You When You Get There'' (2014) and ''Listen To Your Heart'' (2017) on Delusions of Grandeur, and '' Needledrop'' (2020) and ''low key, low pressure'' (2023) on

Night Time Stories Night Time Stories is an English independent record label founded by Paul Glancy in 2009. It is notable for releasing the ''Late Night Tales'' compilation series since 2009 by artists such as Trentemøller, Röyksopp, Bonobo, Jon Hopkins, Bill ...

History

Hauke Freer and Matthias Reiling grew and met in

, Germany, where they organized parties and club nights with non-commercial music, as there was no one else who was organizing such parties at the time. They hung out at a local record store where they listened to all the new records that were coming in. Eventually, they started to DJ together in 1997. In 2001, they left their hometown, with Freer moving to Berlin, and Reiling moving to Hamburg. Reiling became involved in Hamburg's hardcore metal scene as a member of Two Tribes, while Freer became involved in label management, setting up his labels Retreat and Quarion. In 2007, the duo reconnected under the name Session Victim and released their debut EP, ''No Friends'', on the following year. In 2012, they signed with

Jimpster Jimpster (a.k.a. Audiomontage, a.k.a. Franc Spangler, real name Jamie Odell) is a Great Britain, British deep house record producer, producer and disc jockey, DJ. Together with Tom Roberts, he founded the record label, labels Freerange Records and ...

's record label Delusions of Grandeur, under which they released three studio albums: ''The Haunted House Of House'' (2012), ''See You When You Get There'' (2014) and ''Listen To Your Heart'' (2017). In 2020, they signed with

and released their fourth studio album, '' Needledrop''. The album includes vocals from

Beth Hirsch Beth Hirsch (born October 18, 1967) is a singer-songwriter from Tampa, Florida. Hirsch is best known for her collaboration with Air on their album ''Moon Safari''. Her first solo album, '' Early Days'', was released in 2000, followed by ''Titles ...

Production and live performances

Session Victim's music has been described as "a succinct mix of smooth,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

infused house, atmospheric balearic groove and soulful

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

" by ''

DJ Mag ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lati ...

''. They also sample

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

. Band member Hauke Freer described the creative process behind their albums: Session Victim's gear includes

Korg Trident The Korg Trident is a polyphonic multi-section synthesizer released by Korg in 1980, combining three distinct synthesizers within a single instrument: a polyphonic section with two VCOs, alongside dedicated String and Brass sections. The polyphonic ...

, Korg Minilogue,

Roland R-8 The R-8 Human Rhythm Composer is an electronic drum machine introduced in 1989 by Roland Corporation, using PCM voices. The R-8 features velocity- and pressure-sensitive trigger pads, and the ability to create loops of beats. The device has eigh ...

, and

LinnDrum The LinnDrum, often erroneously referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Development The LinnDrum was designed by the American engineer Roger Linn. It was ...

. They used their friend's

Roland JX-3P The Roland JX-3P is a synthesizer produced by Roland Corporation of Japan from 1983–1985. The "3P" in its name refers to "Programmable Preset Polyphonic". It is notable as one of the company's first synthesizers (along with the Jupiter-6) to ...

for ''See You When You Get There'' and ''Listen To Your Heart''. Their

effects unit An effects unit, effects processor, or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion (music), distortion/overdrive, ...

s include Moogerfooger delay and Strymon Big Sky. Matthias Reiling used Protracker on the

Amiga 500 The Amiga 500, also known as the A500, was the first popular version of the Amiga home computer, "redefining the home computer market and making so-called luxury features such as multitasking and colour a standard long before Microsoft or Apple ...

on his early career; now he also uses an

Akai Akai (, ) is a Japanese brand & former electronics manufacturer, established as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo in 1929. It was best known outside Japan for its tape recorders during the 1960s and 1970s. The company became bankrupt in 2000 ...

S612 and

Ensoniq ASR-10 The Ensoniq ASR-10 is a sampling keyboard produced by Ensoniq between 1992 and 1998. The ASR-10 was a follow-up product to the very popular Ensoniq EPS and EPS-16 Plus performance samplers, and was also available with a piano style weighted ...

. Session Victim have used

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool for compos ...

in the last decade of their career. They have ditched most

audio plug-in An audio plug-in, in computer software, is a Plug-in (computing), plug-in that can add or enhance audio-related functions in a computer program, typically a digital audio workstation. Such functions may include digital signal processing or soun ...

s as they find them more distracting than helpful. They derive their drum sounds either from sampling drums or from

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

s; they don't possess

drum kit A drum kit or drum set (also known as a trap set, or simply drums in popular music and jazz contexts) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one p ...

s. They always construct drums on their music from scratch, use very little processing, and avoid digital drum libraries. Reiling's gear includes an ESP Precision

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

. Finding the right samples from various records is crucial to Session Victim's production work. They consider themselves very picky when selecting record stores in which they will discover new records to sample from. Session Victim are known for their

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

-only DJ sets and hardware-based live shows, which include

Volca Beats The Volca Beats is a hybrid drum machine produced by the Japanese music technology manufacturer Korg. It was released in April 2013 along with the Volca Keys and Volca Bass. The Volca Beats uses both analogue synthesis and PCM samples to produ ...

and

Roland TR-707 The Roland TR-707 Rhythm Composer is a drum machine released by Roland Corporation in 1985. Features The TR-707 has 15 digitally sampled sound and 10-voice polyphony. The alternate bass drum, snare, and hi-hat sounds cannot be triggered simult ...

drum machines, a

Roland Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...

SE-02

analog synthesizer An analog synthesizer () is a synthesizer that uses Analogue electronics, analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a var ...

, and bass guitar. For their live performances, they break their arrangements down into little loops and spread them over their 12 channels and pads, building a live arrangement. Previously, they used to practice the original song arrangement.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''The Haunted House of House'' (2012) * ''See You When You Get There'' (2014) * ''Listen to Your Heart'' (2017) * '' Needledrop'' (2020) * ''low key, low pressure'' (2023)

References

{{reflist

External links

Session Victim
on

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

German house music groups German musical duos German male musical duos

Musical groups established in 2007 Night Time Stories artists