Session Victim

German house duo Session Victim draws from soul, funk, disco, and additional sources during studio sessions, then channels the material into high-energy, hardware-driven performances on the road. Hauke Freer and Matthias Reiling first crossed paths while growing up in Lüneburg, a modest town in northern Germany. The pair launched a weekly club night there, essential because the locale offered no other venue for non-commercial sounds, and used the opportunity to learn DJing skills on their own. Both departed the town in 2000, Reiling heading to Hamburg and Freer to Berlin. In the years that followed their paths split creatively: Reiling immersed himself in Hamburg’s hardcore community through membership in Two Tribes, whereas Freer turned toward label operations and eventually co-founded the vinyl-only imprint Retreat with Quarion. The two reunited at a New Year’s Eve party in 2007 and ended up spontaneously assembling a track, an encounter that solidified their partnership. The next year brought their first release, the 2008 No Friends EP, issued on the U.K. label Real Soon. While issuing additional EPs, Session Victim also refined their stage approach, opting for an all-hardware configuration that incorporated a bass guitar to inject live energy unattainable with laptops. Ahead of recording their debut album, 2012’s The Haunted House of House, they joined Jimpster’s imprint Delusions of Grandeur, which later released the follow-ups See You When You Get There in 2014 and Listen to Your Heart in 2017.