Wim Mertens - In Act

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The Belgian composer Wim Mertens (born 1953) is an international recording and performing artist who has given several concerts, as a soloist and with his ensemble all over Europe, in North and Central America, Japan and in Russia. Wim Mertens plays the piano and the classical guitar. He sings in a characteristically high-pitched voice, using a carefully crafted personal language. Since 1980 he has composed many pieces in different formats, from short, accessible songs or Lieder to magnanimous and complex three and four parts cycles, and for different settings: from piano solo to chamber music ensembles and symphonic orchestra. He often writes for unusual instrumentations: twelve piccolos, ten basstrombones, thirteen clarinets. Since his recording debut in 1980, titled For amusement only, an electronic composition for pinball machines, Wim Mertens has released more than 50 albums. He wrote American Minimal Music, the first book which deals in depth with the school of American repetitive music. Early landmark albums are Vergessen (1982) and Struggle for pleasure, including Close cover, still one of his classics. The 1985 album Maximizing the audience, marks the introduction of the vocal element in Mertens' music. Throughout the years the composer has expressed the increasing vocal inspiration of his music on piano and voice albums such as A man of no fortune, and with a name to come (1986), After virtue (1988) and Stratégie de la rupture (1991), Jérémiades (1995), Der heisse brei (2000) and Un respiro (2005). Mertens also released albums for various ensembles: Motives for writing (1988), Jardin clos (1996), Shot and echo - A sense of place (1992), Integer valor - Intégrale (1999), Skopos (2003) Partes extra partes (2005), recorded with the Brussels Philharmonic (Vlaams Radio Orkest) and Receptacle (2007), performed by a group of 17 musicians, all women and L'heure du loup (2008). Started in 1991 with the trilogy Alle dinghe, the ambitious cycle Qua, covering 37 cd's</A>, followed by the tetralogy Gave van niets in 1994, the trilogy Kere Weerom in 1999 and the tetralogy Aren lezen in 2001. The whole cycle Qua was released as a box set in 2009. Other special releases included the 1997's guitar album Sin embargo and Moment (2003), a 13 albums box set covering the period 1980-1989 with 80 compositions. In 2002, Wim Mertens started with the release of a live series entitled Years without history composed of live recordings completed since the 80's. The series includes so far 7 albums: Moins de mètre, assez de rythme (2002), In the absence of hindrance (2002), Cave musicam (2002), Not yet, no longer (2004), With no need for seeds (2004), The promise kept in advance (2008, only included in the 6 cd's box set Years without history vol. 1-6) and Nosotros (2008). In 2006, first DVD live recording, What you see is what you hear, including 16 compositions selected from 25 years' career. Since July 2003 several scores by the composer are published. Particular projects include the composition and live performing of original music for piano and voice for the silent movies La femme de nulle part by Louis Delluc and The land beyond the sunset by Harold Shaw in 1993 and original composition for the new men collection Christian Dior Homme, performed live with the Wim Mertens Ensemble during the fashion show in Paris in early 2008. Wim Mertens also works for the theatre and the movies. He wrote several scores such as Jan Fabre's performance's The Power of theatrical madness (1984), Peter Greenaway's film The belly of an architect (1987), Je pense à vous by the brothers Luc and Jean- Pierre Dardenne, Marion Hänsel's film Li - Between the devil and the deep blue sea (1992), Paul Cox's Father Damien (1999), among others. Actually the artist is performing with different settings : Solo piano, Duo (violin, piano), Pianotrio (violin, cello, piano) with different Ensembles and also with Symphonic Orchestra. 2009's releases include the box set Music and film, composed of three cd's covering a large selection of Mertens' film music. In June 2009, EMI Classics gathers together for the first time the cycle Qua, started in 1990 avec Alle dinghe, followed by Gave van niets in 1994, Kere weerom in 1999 and Aren lezen in 2001. The 37 albums are now available in an elegant box set. At the same time, the new Wim Mertens ensemble studio album The world tout court is released. Wim Mertens discography is now worldwide available on EMI Classics, except in Spain where it is licensed by Warner Music Spain. Zee versus Zed has been released in 2010. With this album, Wim Mertens releases 10 pieces for an ensemble composed of strings, brass, harp and guitar. With titles such as Zusammensetzen, Zing'up, Zoet'kemiesch and the vocal Z's rival, the last letter of the alphabet serves as fil conducteur for the new album. In 2011, with Series of ands - Immediate givens, his new double album, the composer achieves an enlarged musical scale. In total, more than 30 musicians participated to this ambitious production. A complete scale of strings, horns, guitars, harp and even an authentic harpsichord (it's the first time that Mertens includes this instrument in his music) ensures a hyper orchestral sound and a striking development of the composer's palette. Release in  Belgium & Benelux  28.11.2011 WIM MERTENS OPEN CONTINUUM With OPEN CONTINUUM Wim Mertens presents his second project with symphonic orchestra. In 2006 the composer recorded Partes extra partes, a studio production with the Brussels Philarmonic directed by the Argentinian conductor Dante Anzolini. Since then, Wim Mertens regularly performed with a piano/voice and symphonic orchestra setup, with among others Madrid, Murcia, Berlin and Brussels Philarmonic's orchestras. The composer considers the production and the performing with symphonic orchestra as one of the facets of his musical activity. Since his first recordings At home-Not at home (1980); Vergessen and Struggle for pleasure (1982) and Maximizing the audience (1984), Mertens alternates the solo concerts (Epic that never was, Lisbon 1993), with brass quartets (Not yet, no longer, Gdansk 2003) or with brass sextet, accompanied or not by a vocal sextet (What you see is what you hear, Antwerpen 2006). But Mertens performs and has performed also for numerous concerts in more than twenty countries with various setups : duo (violin or clarinet and soprano sax, Moins de mètre, assez de rythme, Paris 2002) and in trio for piano, violin and cello. With the solo record In the absence of hindrance (Gdansk, 2002) and numerous solo studio recordings (i.e. After Virtue (1988), Der heisse Brei (2000) and Un respiro (2004) Mertens associates the practice of making music as a soloist (piano and voice) with his activities as a composer for the most varied setups as in Skopos, (Gaasbeek, 2002), for an ensemble of 14 musicians. OPEN CONTINUUM treats about the continuum - vocal ? - which doesn't stop but is only interrupted given its open character ! This opening aspect allows to open disruptions and distortions of all kinds, without having to close and naively conclude. This new turbulence between Practice and Theory is visible and audible in Wim Mertens' double CD and DVD OPEN CONTINUUM. OPEN CONTINUUM: Wim Mertens, piano/voice with the Tenerife symphonic orchestra directed by Dirk Brossé. Brussels, 5.11.11 Release date Belgium, Luxemburg & The Netherlands : 04.04.2011 Release Spain : 10.05.2011 With his new double album Series of ands-Immediate givens Wim Mertens achieves an enlarged musical scale. In total, more than 30 musicians participated in this production. A complete scale of strings, horns, guitars, harp and even an authentic harpsichord (it's the first time that Mertens includes this instrument in his music) ensures an orchestral sound and a striking development of the composer's palette. Various tracks for which the artist has been comissioned are featured in this production, among other the music for a Dior fashion show in Paris in 2008 (In.Zones and Tactility) and the music composed within the context of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union - music which was used at the same time for the Belgian pavilion at the World Exposition in Shanghai (Oeuvrer, 2010). Mertens also presents the title Indexed by the arche-fossil based on the music composed for the documentary about Willem Elsschot 'Erfgenaam van Elsschot', directed by the Dutch Suzanne Raes. Series of ands is possible thanks to Immediate givens. What is immediately given is not subject to all sorts of operations. On the contrary, it will remain autonomous, simply like it is. Arrangements based on calculations stay exclusively at the service of what is immediately given. It's only in the performance that at the last moment an anchoring will take its place without fixed place. So presents itself what doesn't have a permanent place without the support of an inaudible background noise. It is so that the Immediate givens are only connected to Series of ands by an air de famille. The cover and the different titles - Unwitnessed ancestral phenomena, Indexed by the arche-fossil and The fossil argument - seem to refer to a refusal of linear time in favour of a broader temporal experience before human existence. Series of ands - Immediate givens includes a remarkable solo of the Belgian Anneleen Lenaerts who in the meantime was selected as new harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic. SERIES OF ANDS - Immediate givens                    2CD (digipack limited edition)  2012-05-26 Pontevedra, Spain Wim Mertens Teatro Novacaixagalicia 2012-05-25 Alcoy, Spain Wim Mertens Solo piano Teatro Calderon 2012-05-22 Valencia, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Teatro Olympia (Violin, cello, piano, voice) 2012-05-20 Malaga, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Teatro Cervantes (Violin, cello, piano, voice) 2012-03-16 Brussels, Belgium Wim Mertens Ensemble Ancienne Belgique Struggle for pleasure >> Rewind 2012-03-15 Brussels, Belgium Wim Mertens Ensemble Ancienne Belgique Struggle for pleasure >> Rewind 2012-03-07 Guimarães, Portugal Wim Mertens with the Fundação Orquestra Estúdio - Conducted by Rui Massena Centro Cultural Vila Flor 2012-02-15 Orléans, France Wim Mertens Duo Centre Culturel de l´ Université d´Orléans (Violin, piano and voice) 2012-01-20 Genk, Belgium Wim Mertens Ensemble C-mine Cultuurcentrum (String quintet, piano, voice) 2012-01-07 Vilvoorde, Belgium Wim Mertens Ensemble CC Het Bolwerk (String quintet, piano, voice) Webdesign by Jurgen Van Hoof aka ZoB, http://www.zobweb.be