It is Sunday, a few days after the sad news that American psychoacoustician, mathematician, composer, improvisor, inventor, mentor and teacher David Wessel (B. 1942) had passed away from heart failure October 13 at the age of 72. I first met Wessel at IRCAM when I was there in the 90’s. Though he had left in 1988 to head the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at UC Berkeley, he could sometimes be found in the halls of the Paris studios he helped develop from the hole in the ground it was in 1976 to the centre of creative technology would become. In fact, it seemed impossible to not run across his name on some report, article or theory published in-house or not be influenced by some practice or development that did not have his stamp on it somewhere. The mix of scientists, composers, engineers and “facilitators” also seemed to be as much due to his own mix of interests as those of Boulez’s official edict. Even after Wessel resigned to create another unique centre in California, he continued to have some invisible power within the institution where he had invested so much of his time and creativity. I think that whatever IRCAM is today, it is also because of his presence early on in the creation of that unique center of creation, pedagogy and technology.
There is a very good interview with Wessel to be found here -> Wessel on Max. It is here that his influence on music made with computers in sonic arts and “real-time” live electronics is clearly, though modestly, mentioned. There are also some pretty cool videos out there and I’ve included links to a couple of these at the end of this post. The thing is, you need to take your time and listen to what he is saying as well as showing. He is a very discreet magician… or painter. We will need to stand back to see the whole picture and connect the dots. His life and work are more than worthy of study and certainly a book or two to shine some light on a intensely dense career. As of now, there is nothing out there… He will be missed.
Musicbru 