Biography
Michael Hess (December 7th, 1970 - presumed dead 1989) was an American experimental musician notable for writing and recording over eight hundred songs from his first synthesizer purchase in 1983 to his mysterious disappearance in 1989.
Hess began playing music in 1980 at around the age of ten, when he and his friends began recording percussive tracks on a four-track toy tape player, until he received his first synthesizer from his parents about three years later. With this, he began recording music by himself and with his band, Whistle. While Whistle remained as an entity throughout the decade and into the mid 90s, Hess began to distance himself from the group to focus on his own music. Throughout the rest of his short career, he was able to compile one full album, entitled Found. The album was assembled over two years, recorded over three, and dealt with topics such as his mother's loss to breast cancer and his breakup with his high school sweetheart (and former bandmate) Amy Zarone.
After Found was completed, Hess began writing extensively, dealing with more experimental song structures and traditional songs concerning love and loss. However, in the spring of 1988, Hess received a $30,000 grant from the Escola de Música Avançada do Rio de Janeiro, a now-defunct school in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He moved to South America within the month in order to take in the sights and sounds of the city and record his next album, tentatively titled Rio. While in the city, he opened a small independent record label, Hess Records, which featured a small range of local artists. In May 1988, he received a letter from a friend of his, Eric Warren. Warren was a director who was developing his first film (a slasher titled Night Killer) and wrote to Hess to ask for his assistance in writing the score for the film.
Hess spent the summer of 1988 working on the album and the film score, growing more and more frustrated with the results of both. According to eyewitnesses, Hess's mental and physical health visibly deteriorated over this time. Eventually, in August 1988, Hess fled the city, master tapes for both projects in his possession. He spent autumn and winter of 1988 wandering around Latin America before returning to Los Angeles in November 1988. During this time he lived at bandmate Stephen Stone's home, deteriorating slowly and quietly, but still recording songs by the dozens. On the morning of March 13th, 1989, Stone woke up to find that Hess had disappeared and taken all his recording equipment with him. Besides scattered sightings within the weeks after his disappearance, Michael Hess was never seen again, and is presumed to be dead.
With the resurgence of his Found album in mid-2010, restoration of Hess's performances has been taken up by his sister Catherine and the remaining members of Whistle.
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