Frank Musch works under the moniker of Wesper. He’s a DJ, composer, producer, music video director and movie script writer from the Netherlands.

After exploring many genres in music, he started to compose minimal techno and switched over to progressive house. Beside that, he directed music videos for his ambient tracks, electro funk and progressive house tracks.

After a visit to Berlin in the summer of 2006, Wesper got inspired by minimal techno of the Berlin scene and he started to compose simple loops. While playing at venues, he mixed those loops smoothly and rapidly, making a set to an inspiring sonic journey and he got the attention from several DJ’s. After a series of gigs in late 2007, the attention seemed to extinguish, and DJ Wesper focused on making a music video. With several well-known Dutch models, he completed the video by fall 2008, provoking positive feedback. In 2009, Wesper had two performances in Nantes, France. He also organised his first nights in Amsterdam and Rotterdam under the Origin Park moniker. He also got his first netlabel release and in spring 2010, he completed a video for a funk track, rather different than the minimal tracks he used to compose. From 2010, he organised the first series of nights, called the Origin Park Annual Meetings, where he invited talented Dutch DJs as well as DJs from abroad. A new series began in 2011 called the Origin Park Cortisol Concept, in 2012 this series was now entitled the Origin Park Telson Collectors. Wesper has released several EP’s and a full-length album on Morninglory Music. With more than 150 tracks composed, with a total playing time of more than 24 hours, Wesper proves to be a very productive DJ/composer. When it comes to his musical style throughout the years, Wesper has also composed different styles, like breakbeat, progressive house, techno, ambient… Wesper has performed three times at Amsterdam Dance Event so far, the first edition in 2012, then in 2014 and 2018 at the Recycle Lounge Gallery Club. In 2013 Wesper played two shows in Sri Lanka. One on a beach party in Unawatuna. Wesper’s mixes have been performed on radio stations in Argentina in 2014. In November that year, Wesper’s dream of performing in Lille came true, playing at the Moog Analogic Bar. In 2015, a collaboration with supporters of football club USL Dunkerque resulted in a wicked drum’n bass track, which gained acclaim by the club. Wesper has been interviewed by the club and the track was included on the website. Wesper also recorded a video for the Bryan Ferry-esque track ‘Silent Eyes’. This electro/rock song has been remixed in a very particular way by DJs, and it resulted in the ‘Silent Eyes Remixes’ EP. For each remix, Wesper created a video in 2016. Now 2016 was a very fruitful year for producing videos, one of them was a video to make a promotion for the French city of Dunkirk. Wesper also experimented with timelapse images and he recorded a HD remake for the track ‘Love Thing’. In 2017, he made a video with an erotic touch for the track ‘Night Queen II’, which has been released along with a remix by Nightbob. 2017 was also a busy year of remixing tracks for other artists. In December, Wesper started to host a radio show on Dunkerque Street Radio in Dunkirk, France. Malta was the very “exotic” country where Wesper performed in 2018. He also released ‘A Woman’s Heart’, which was met with acclaim by the DJ scene. This track was also remixed and again, Wesper created a video for all remixes. In 2019, Wesper finalized a track on which he had been working on for many months, the French song ‘Il Reste Le Vainqueur’. He released the track through Bandcamp and created a “Bryan Ferry” style video for the song. In 2020, Wesper had planned to celebrate his 25th anniversary as a musician, but due to the pandemic, all plans were dropped. Wesper did release a self-composed mix from Dunkerque Street Radio, and also a compilation of his early recordings. At the end of the year, Wesper composed new tracks, which were released as a full-length album in 2021. As a prelude, a sunny vibes feel-good track ‘No Escape From Summer’ was released in spring 2021.

“Progressive house music is characterized by a well-balanced “wall of sound” with a slight psychedelic edge”

Hi Frank, it’s great to have you. What does ‘Wesper’ mean?

Frank Musch: It’s a wordplay actually. I used to have the stage name Wesper Laguêpe in the early days of DJ-ing. “La Guêpe” is French for “the wasp”, “Wesp” is Dutch for “wasp”, and Wesper sounds like a familiar first name. Later I shortened to Wesper for easy communication.

Your new album, ‘Echoes From The Ionosphere’ has a fantastic atmosphere. Can you share a peek into your creative process and what kind of gear do you use?

When The Netherlands went in Covid lockdown in December 2020, I started listening to mixes from Russian DJ Olga Misty. She has the perfect touch on mixing great tracks containing subtle details. I have listened to those mixes for hours and started working on tracks. It meant taking care of those catching details, such as spacey synths, samples in the distance, extensive use of reverb and filters, all driven by a solid groove. Progressive house music is characterized by a well-balanced “wall of sound” with a slight psychedelic edge, not that massive wall of sound like trance is blasting out of the speakers. Due to the work of adding samples and fine tuning on small details, I finally finished the album in summer 2021.

I composed the complete album using Fruity Loops with some plug-ins, without any other external effects in a very basic setting; it proves that it is not really necessary to have a room filled with studio equipment.

Did you have a certain direction or idea in mind for this record?

Not really some kind of direction. I took several influences, creating together a versatile Wesper album. I wanted to groove using funky and jazzy elements, world music, as well as producing some more solid tech house sounds. ‘Into The Great Wide Ocean’ is more like a soundscape floating on a hypnotizing rhythm. ‘Forest Of Dreams’ is very dreamy, while ‘Waalhaven Funk’ has an industrial touch.

What can you say about your musical background? You’ve been DJing for 20+ years now. Can you tell us more about how it originally started…

I started learning to play bass and guitar in the 1990’s. Soon, I wanted to record and release something, so I went recording industrial soundscapes, using a computer, bass, guitar and effects. Back then I thought that industrial could become more mainstream, with the popularity of Nine Inch Nails during the mid-90’s in mind. I was very into industrial and listened to albums from Nine Inch Nails, Throbbing Gristle, Consolidated, Meat Beat Manifesto, Front Line Assembly and Front 242 to name a few. When I recorded my first soundscapes, I went to Staalplaat in Amsterdam to hand over my demos personally. Although it has not led to some record deals, I got inspired by the atmosphere of the industrial scene. Soon after I explored more genres, from dark ambient, stoner rock to experimental music. Several tracks have been recorded in a studio and released on cassette in the late 90’s.

How did you get first interested in music? What kind of music did you listen to as a young teenager?

I have been interested in music from a very young age and I even watched the chart shows on TV in the late 70’s. I only listened to mainstream pop music in the 80’s, especially new wave and synthesizer music, and I did not like rock music at all. When I discovered MTV and in particular the show called “120 Minutes” around 1990, my interest shifted rapidly to alternative rock and industrial, and later even metal. I just could not listen to the cheesy sound from the charts anymore. It was time to explore something else. Good decision.

“Music means total freedom”

Wesper went through sound changes, from minimal techno to a progressive house today…

Exactly. To me, music means total freedom. I compose whatever comes to my mind. After a visit to Berlin in 2006, I got caught by the minimal techno virus, and I started to compose more than 200+ loops and tracks. Some years later I met a guy who just started a netlabel specialized in progressive house, and he asked me if I could also produce some tracks in that genre. No problem to me. And that process has been growing ever since. Just keeping an open mind for different things. When I get stuck on composing one track, I continue on another track.

If I would finish all the recent tracks which are under construction on my computer now, it would become a weird compilation of shoegaze, disco, dark ambient, electro and progressive house.

It sounds very whimsical, I can understand that record labels cannot easily fit me into some marketing concept.

Solo performance at theater-café MACH in Hellevoetsluis, in late 1997

You have several releases available under the moniker of Wesper, how did your music evolve in all those years, you think?

It has been an interesting era since I started composing under the Wesper moniker from very basic minimal techno to very sophisticated progressive house. It has been a search for the ultimate “Wesper sound” from the very beginning. Through the years, I have learned to spend more time on a production to achieve a better result. I can say that after 25 years of producing, the ultimate Wesper sound can be heard on the Smiths-inspired YouTube track ‘Il Reste Le Vainqueur’, a French song combining subtle guitar samples inspired by the concept of progressive house.

You originally started as Spur and released two albums. Can you take some time and share the story behind those early releases?

When I discovered the industrial dub of Mark Stewart & The Mafia, it was a revelation to me. Influenced by their sound, I worked on a mini album ‘Drinkfist Refreshing’ in 1999, which was a foretaste really. The ideas on the album had not been properly crystallized yet. It was a concept of creating a dub album, using a rock instrumentation of drums, guitar and bass. The dub delays should have given the album a more rich dimension.

Then I recorded the album ‘Blasthead’ in 2002. I recorded a heavy industrial sound and I mixed some tracks in just one take, to capture a “live” feel. The final result became some kind of sonic explosion, still combining various genres like noise rock, triphop, ambient and dub reggae. Soon I felt this album was prophetic in some regard, as I recorded about dystopian themes in the week before 9/11 and somehow I saw that some of my visions came true in some aspect. As I did not feel the need to record a similar album like ‘Blasthead’, I started to focus on minimal techno and progressive house under a different moniker.

In 2020, you had planned to celebrate your 25th anniversary as a musician, but due to the pandemic, all plans were dropped. Can we expect something this year?

I hope to pick up the activities again in full force and that the world gets back to normal soon. Over the last two years, I have done what I could have done despite the restrictions. I have written movie scripts, I have created three music videos and released archive recordings on Bandcamp (the ‘Rebellionaire’ compilation and the radio session ‘Séances 59140 Sessions’). But it remains somewhat frustrating that I have not been able to celebrate my 25th anniversary as a musician. I would like to work on new music videos, as well as producing more music. At this moment, it is not sure what will be possible when it comes to festivals or DJ nights. I will continue to share any updates on social media.

<a href="https://wesper.bandcamp.com/album/rebellionaire-1995-2006">Rebellionaire 1995-2006 by Wesper</a>

We know each other through Clear Spot. How did you originally join Clear Spot?

I used to work for a customer of Clear Spot. At a certain point, it was not satisfactory anymore. Then I contacted the Clear Spot staff. I came at the right time actually, as they were looking for a buyer at that moment. So I made the job switch in 2018.

Is there an album that has profoundly affected you more than others?

My top 10 would contain a large variety of styles, but one album has always been an all-time favorite: ‘White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity’, the 1990 album from The Swans. It is such an impressive tour-de-force: the energy, the songs, the influences. After their bleak harsh industrial sound, The Swans proved that they could create powerful songs. It’s a masterpiece.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

I was very surprised by the comeback album from Consolidated ‘We’re Already There’, as I followed this band in the 1990’s… my very first concert I ever attended was from this band.

Now Wolfgang Voigt, also known as GAS, released a new album ‘Der Lange Marsch’, which might sound quite the same as its predecessors, but the mix of samples from classical music, glitches and muted beats remains intriguing.