Richie Hawtin Reveals Details of New Audiovisual Experiment “Close Live”

Richie Hawtin announces the next evolution of his award-winning ‘CLOSE live’ show – the audiovisual mix album CLOSE COMBINED. Out now, the release is an experiment designed to bring greater transparency to the underlying art of DJing in the “press-play” era and intertwines three ‘CLOSE live’ performances from 2018 in Glasgow, Tokyo and London together with crowd-sourced footage into a seamless audiovisual experience.

CLOSE COMBINED is the next evolution in the lineage of Hawtin’s iconic DE9 mix album, which Resident Advisor called one of the top mixes of the decade. It contains music from Charlotte de Witte, ANNA and many more, along with additional live production created with Hawtin’s on-stage arsenal of effects, drum machines and analog synthesizers.

The a/v album is presented in a unique three panel vertical layout allowing the viewer to observe distinct visual perspectives from the CLOSE performances – crowd view, stage set-up and equipment close-ups – bringing the audience closer to the creative impulse that drives Hawtin’s performance. Hawtin worked closely together with long-term collaborator and project visual editor Ali M. Demirel to realize CLOSE COMBINED. Itaru Yasuda’s CLOSE Live visuals also receive their own focus in various angles throughout the video.

“I believe that as our scene has become more popular, the definition of DJing has become more narrow. I want to be as transparent as possible in how, why and what I play in order to bring focus onto the intuitive spontaneity that is at the heart of a great DJ performance,” says Richie Hawtin. “CLOSE COMBINED continues my exploration into my own creative tendencies and invite my fans along to get closer to the instinctive impulses that drive my creativity.”

Officially launched at Coachella in 2017, the ‘CLOSE live’ experiment was first tested on an unsuspecting audience at Unsound Festival in Krakow, Poland in 2016. Since then, the show has been featured at festivals like Sónar, Primavera Sound, Nuits Sonores and concerts at The Roundhouse in London, L’Olympia in Paris, and the Sydney Opera House.

The multi-platform release will also be available in full on YouTube, Apple Music and Facebook Video, with an audio-only version available on all digital music stores via his own Plus 8 Records imprint.

Upcoming ‘CLOSE live’ shows in 2019

October 5 – Sónar Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

October 16 – ADE, Amsterdam, Netherlands (with Modeselektor & Sophie)

November 23 – Palladium, Los Angeles, USA

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