Closer DJ Experience

Interactive app for live-streaming DJ performances

Client
Richie Hawtin
Agency
B-Reel
Role
Creative Lead
Year
2019
Type
App

A DJ set is a kind of magic trick — you hear the result, you never see the hands. CLOSER shows the hands. As Creative Lead at B-Reel, I co-led an interactive audiovisual app that lets you take Richie Hawtin's performances apart: switch camera angles, mute and solo audio layers, and watch his creative process unfold in real time.

Objective

To let people experience a Hawtin set from the inside — and finally see how a live performance is actually built.

Challenge

A standard concert video flattens everything into one feed. Hawtin wanted fans to get under the hood — to control the individual pieces and understand the complexity for themselves.

Solution

We designed CLOSER around three stacked screens. Toggle a sound layer, cut to a different angle, follow his hands across the gear — every choice deconstructs the set a little more, and makes the experience yours.

Execution

An overhead shot anchors the setup, with control over decks, effects, synths, and drums, plus the freedom to jump between crowd views and tight equipment close-ups. Built on cutting-edge multimedia and live-streaming tech for real-time interaction with no loss of quality.

Impact

CLOSER redrew the boundaries of what a live concert video could be, setting a new standard for interactive music where fans remix and reinterpret a set as it happens — and fully realising Hawtin's vision of technology and music as one instrument.

Capabilities

  • Live Streaming
  • User Experience
  • App Design
  • Audio

Live project: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/20/21029821/richie-hawtin-closer-app-dj-concert-techno-audio-visual

Next project: London Mithraeum