diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5bbae92..3903228 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
 #
 
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1 FATAL_ERROR)
-project(Brion VERSION 1.9.0)
-set(Brion_VERSION_ABI 7)
+project(Brion VERSION 1.10.0)
+set(Brion_VERSION_ABI 8)
 
 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake
   ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake/common ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/Pydoxine/CMake)
diff --git a/brain/circuit.cpp b/brain/circuit.cpp
index 75f3a14..b646c50 100644
--- a/brain/circuit.cpp
+++ b/brain/circuit.cpp
@@ -90,6 +90,9 @@ neuron::Morphologies Circuit::loadMorphologies( const GIDSet& gids,
                                                 const Coordinates coords ) const
 {
     const URIs& uris = getMorphologyURIs( gids );
+    const auto circuitPath =
+        // cache outside of loop, canonical does stat() which is slow on GPFS
+        fs::canonical( _impl->getCircuitSource().getPath( )).generic_string();
 
     // < GID, hash >
     Strings gidHashes;
@@ -98,19 +101,15 @@ neuron::Morphologies Circuit::loadMorphologies( const GIDSet& gids,
     GIDSet::const_iterator gid = gids.begin();
     for( size_t i = 0; i < uris.size(); ++i, ++gid )
     {
-        std::string hash( fs::canonical( uris[i].getPath( )).generic_string( ));
+        auto hash = uris[i].getPath();
+        if( hash[0] != '/' ) // opt: don't stat abs file path (see above)
+            hash = fs::canonical( hash ).generic_string();
 
         if( coords == Coordinates::global )
-        {
             // store circuit + GID for transformed morphology
-            hash += fs::canonical(
-                        _impl->getCircuitSource().getPath( )).generic_string() +
-                        boost::lexical_cast< std::string >( *gid );
-            hash = servus::make_uint128( hash ).getString();
-        }
-        else
-            hash = servus::make_uint128( hash ).getString();
+            hash += circuitPath + boost::lexical_cast< std::string >( *gid );
 
+        hash = servus::make_uint128( hash ).getString();
         gidHashes.push_back( hash );
         hashes.insert( hash );
     }
diff --git a/brion/circuit.cpp b/brion/circuit.cpp
index 911c4df..5654c41 100644
--- a/brion/circuit.cpp
+++ b/brion/circuit.cpp
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@
 #include <boost/filesystem.hpp>
 #include <boost/tokenizer.hpp>
 #include <lunchbox/log.h>
-#include <lunchbox/stdExt.h>
 #include <fstream>
+#include <unordered_map>
 
 namespace brion
 {
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ class Circuit::Impl
             LBTHROW( std::runtime_error( "Expecting mvd file format for "
                                          " circuit file " + source ));
 
-        typedef stde::hash_map< std::string, Section > LookUp;
+        typedef std::unordered_map< std::string, Section > LookUp;
         LookUp sections;
         sections.insert( std::make_pair( "Neurons Loaded", SECTION_NEURONS ));
         sections.insert( std::make_pair( "MicroBox Data", SECTION_MICROBOX ));
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ class Circuit::Impl
 private:
     std::ifstream _file;
 
-    typedef stde::hash_map< uint32_t, Strings > CircuitTable;
+    typedef std::unordered_map< uint32_t, Strings > CircuitTable;
     CircuitTable _table;
 };
 
diff --git a/doc/Changelog.md b/doc/Changelog.md
index 7a024be..6d77dc9 100644
--- a/doc/Changelog.md
+++ b/doc/Changelog.md
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 Changelog {#Changelog}
 =========
 
+# git master
+
+* [119](https://github.com/BlueBrain/Brion/pull/119):
+  Optimized brain::Circuit::loadMorphologies for slow stat'ing
+  filesystems (GPFS)
+
 # Release 1.9.0 (09-Dec-2016)
 
 * [117](https://github.com/BlueBrain/Brion/pull/117):