Read Part 5: Transference
Read Part 3: Orbital
Introduction
The first three chapters in The Path To Dimensional Space covered previously released, often quite collectible cv313 material now also available digitally and label direct from echospace [detroit] in the lead up to the release of the debut album. Dimensional Space has not been released in isolation, however, Hitchell instead opting to release not one, but four new cv313 albums, in quick succession. The first two of these are recordings of live sets from very different periods, and it is these that will be covered in detail here.
So far only available label-direct, the Live Excursions and Live @ Primary CDs were originally to be released in plain black slipcases with custom metallic stickers, but due to manufacturing issues, were then replaced at great expense by extremely handsome gatefold Eco-friendly wallets, which are arguably superior even to the labels’ standard digipak releases.
Stephen Hitchell also talks about his approach to live, cv313 performances.
Q & A with Stephen Hitchell
What was the first live gig you ever played as cv313 and how would you describe it?
SH :: “The first live show as CV313 was in Toledo, Ohio in the late 90s. I would describe it as borderline terrifying, as it was one of the first shows to utilize a myriad of unstable analog equipment for the performance.”
How important is touring and performing live to you?
SH :: “It is certainly relevant in this career path, but over the years I find it has become less and less desirable because the way in which I would like to perform isn’t a convenient option for myself or the promoters involved. Ultimately there is a reason for this: the absence of my personal recording studio on a stage. I found it a bit unnerving, in terms of the limitations and obstacles one needs to overcome in a live performance setting. I must rely heavily on improvisation and feeling the energy of each event.”
Do you find that your live performances influence or inform your studio work?
SH :: “Indeed; I find that they both influence each other, and there is a fluidity involved in each process.”
How do you go about putting together a set for a live show? Is it rigorously planned or is there some degree of improvisation?
SH :: “The live shows I play rely heavily on improvisation and are virtually impossible to re-create, each show having its own sense of uniqueness. I make an effort to ensure each and every show is vastly different, inspired by a new approach each time.”
Do you have any standout memories from the Glass City and Primary gigs?
SH :: “Most certainly. Both of these shows were coordinated by close friends, whom I hold near and dear to my heart. For this reason alone, these shows will always be memorable, which is why I chose to highlight these performances as individual releases on the Echospace label.”
There’s very little to compare between the Glass City [Live Excursions] set and [Live @ Primary]. How do you feel the live process has changed over the years?
SH :: “I think you have a very good point. The key ingredient that is missing from one or the other is the absence of a computer. In many of the earlier live performances, I was reliant on drum machines and analog sequencers, which are faulty by nature. When using archaic methods of producing, one is subjected to limitations, whereas in today’s current technologies, there are a plethora of options. I would say the one vast difference has very little to do with inspiration, soul, spirit.”
The 2013 [Live @ Primary] set seems like a particularly highly evolved one, with any one track drawing on multiple elements from tracks old and new. It’s almost like a unique series of totally new tracks. How did this format come about?
SH :: “To be honest, I am not sure in all actuality. I think the one key ingredient that is dominant in this one particular show versus other shows was an incorporation of a variety of other samplers utilizing old material in a new platform.”
Favorite gig of all time?
SH :: “JAPAN-Labyrinth festival, Mt. Fuji. The level of commitment from the audience on this particular occasion… the festival itself was placed strategically on the side of a mountain. The air was brisk, the sky was silent and the smell of candle wax in nature consumed the air. The feeling was nothing short of mystical, and the magic I felt in the surroundings was surreal. In this moment, I felt that I didn’t want to be anywhere else on this earth, the synergy and connection with the audience was unlike anything I had ever felt in my life. The phenomena I witnessed that particular evening was one attribute in the human condition I have never quite realized.”
cv313 :: Live @ Primary
The second in an ongoing series of live cv313 performances released on CD, Live @ Primary presents a recording of a set at the Primary nightclub in Chicago in August 2013, the most recent and also the most radically different, dance-floor friendly of the live sets released so far.
It’s also one of those most highly evolved in the series too, as the massive info-dump regarding the contents of the disc listed inside the gatefold Eco friendly wallet attests. The disc is indexed into ten fully mixed tracks, but rather than providing names for each, the sleeve notes list out the numerous and varied sources and samples used for each one (a grand total of seventy discrete sources in all), ranging from well known cv313 tracks to forthcoming singles, previously unreleased mixes, tracks from the archive or outside samples of work from Deepchord, Soulek, Sons of the Dragon et al.
The result is an album that, whilst occasionally tangentially familiar, in essence presents ten completely new cv313 tracks. It takes patience and a keen ear to identify one or more of the six-plus sources indicated per track, especially since they are seamlessly woven together.
There’s no extended ambient introduction or gentle build up here, the album simply dives right in, immediately establishing the template for the set as a whole. Warm, muted bass pulses and sprayed by unusually grandiose fountains of static and hiss, while a relentless, train-track clatter and jolting percussion create the constant sensation of jolting, forward motion. The early tracks on Live @ Primary are, in their own way, every bit as evocative of the overwhelming hustle and bustle of overcrowded, neon-lit city centers as Deepchord presents Echospace’s immersive Liumin.
As Live @ Primary progresses it heads further and further into floor-friendly territory, the bass becoming more prominent, the atmospherics denser and the delay more pronounced, a superb build up before the break afforded by “Excursion VI”. It then enters an intense sequence of tracks as choppy loops and samples from a forthcoming single called “Anatomize” mix turbulently with extracts from the harder-edged “Standing Still,” the stormy “Clouds Beyond” and the electrically charged “Evocation” together with a repeated, eastern riff.
Hitchell allows the Chicago house flavors of his Soultek project to bleed through into “Excursion VIII,” which directly incorporates a segment of the rarely heard Soultek track “Lonely World,” one of the few Hitchell authored tracks to include a full vocal section, though it is absent in this live mix. Meanwhile “Excursion XI” bears a striking resemblance to “Irradiate,” another new track that can be found on the forthcoming Altering Illusions: Chapter One 2xCD set, though here it is presented in a faster, more angular and high contrast form. The set even has the decency to feature a definitive reverb-and-delay drenched ending, rather than simply fading to silence.
Like almost all of the new releases that were available to pre-order on the echospace [detroit] Bandcamp site, Live @ Primary comes with exclusive, digital-only content, in this case three further tracks taken from an unnamed live performance. Live @ Primary is a potent, swirling mix of sources with a relentless pacing quite unlike the other live performances. It’s a killer set, and easily the most compelling of the Live series to date. If you can secure a copy, do so without delay. You won’t be disappointed.
Live @ Primary is available on echospace [detroit]. [Release Page]
cv313 :: Live Excursions
Live Excursions is the third in the cv313 Live series, this time a recording of a gig performed by Hitchell at the 2001 DEMF Festival for the Glass City Records release party. As the earliest recording in the series to date it is in many ways Live @ Primary‘s opposite number, a fact reflected in the vastly different material featured, as well as the negative-print artwork that adorns the gatefold Eco friendly wallet.
It is perhaps the most easily recognizable as a cv313 gig in particular, featuring many staples of early cv313 material with very few of the diversions into Soultek, Intrusion or other housier archive material that characterizes other live cv313 sets. Live Excursions focuses heavily on on tightly looped, mesmerizing, repeated grooves soaked in delay and reverb, with warm, fuzzy textures and soft, through-the-walls beat-work that one can imagine anesthetizing many a wearied festival-goer seeking a final, hazy chill out session.
The tracks on Live Excursions are all simply named “Glass City Session” with a numeric suffix, but a bit of digging into the cv313 back catalog does at least reveal the origins of some of these tracks. It opens, for example, on a live version of the twenty-two minute long “Subtraktive [Intrusion’s Enchantment] Extended Version,” and yes, that makes it a live variant of an extended version of a remix of “Subtraktive,” proof of how deeply meta the whole echospace [detroit] catalog can be.
The original mix can actually be found on the second “Subtraktive” disc of the 2xCD edition of Dimensional Space, and this live version doesn’t deviate drastically from it. It’s a stunning opening to the set, the hovering drones, rolling congas, and earth-shaking sub-bass making for a truly hypnotic, head in the clouds twenty-two minute opus.
“Glasscity Session III” is a particular surprise, as it turns out to be none other than a live version of “Durveda,” a hitherto unreleased track fully of atyipically dark and disturbing drones and textures that makes it proper debut on Dimensional Space. This alone makes Live Excursions enough of a historical curio for fans to warrant investing.
Pre-orders of the Live Excursions disc on the echospace [detroit] Bandcamp site also came with an immediate download of four tracks that were stated to be on the CD itself. In actual fact it appears that the second and fourth tracks appear on the main disc, but the first and third do not, making them digital exclusives. Sadly, these tracks are not mastered to anywhere near the same quality as the main disc, the sound quality muddy and muted.
Live Excursions is hopefully not the last in the Live series of cv313 sets we’ll see, as they frequently offer unique takes on the material, and each has it own distinctive character. This is definitely one for armchair listening, an intoxicating opiate best experienced on headphones with a spacious sound stage.
Live Excursions is available on echospace [detroit]. [Release Page]
