Wim Mertens - In Act

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The Belgian composer (born in 1953) is a singer-vocalist, using a carefully crafted personal language, pianist, guitarist, and musicologist.. Mertens studied social and political sciences and musicology. In 1978, he became a producer at the VRT (then BRT, Belgian Radio and Television). He 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 and in Japan. In 1998 Mertens became the Cultural Ambassador of Flanders. He has composed many pieces in different formats, from short, accessible songs or Lieder to ambitious 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 52 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 (1982), 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, 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, 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 shall be 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 2006, first DVD live recording, What you see is what you hear, including 16 compositions selected from 25 years' career. 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 music for the new men collection Christian Dior Homme, performed live with the Wim Mertens Ensemble (11 musicians) during the fashion show in Paris early 2008. 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). 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 (1992), Marion Hänsel's film Li - Between the devil and the deep blue sea (1992), Paul Cox's Father Damien (1999), among others. A selection of his film compositions is released in February 2009 in a 3 CD box set Music and film. Actually the artist is performing with different settings: solo piano, duo (violin, piano), with different ensembles and also with symphonic orchestra. An ambitious re-release plan of his back-catalogue started with Emi Belgium in January 2008. Wim Mertens discography is now worldwide available on EMI Classics, except in Spain where it is licensed by Warner Music Spain. Boxset 37 CD  Limited Edition Started in 1991 with the trilogy Alle dinghe - a three -part cycle covering 7 cd's, written for different instrumentations and celebrating the first ten years of Wim Mertens' career - the ambitious cycle Qua, covering 37 cd's and more than 33 hours of music, is now released on EMI Classics in an attractive limited-edition boxset. The sequel to Alle dinghe, the even grander Gave van niets was released in 1994. This four parts cycle, four years in the making and comprising two double and two triple cd's, reveals the ever growing importance of intuition and organic flow, opposed to conceptualization, as the main source for Mertens' music. In December 1999, Wim Mertens releases Kere weerom. This trilogy was composed and recorded between 1995 and 1999, and consists of : Poèma (2 cd's, piano), Kere weerom (3 cd's, strings, guitar, harp, percussion and piano) and Decorum (2 cd's, clarinet, flute and guitar). In December 2001, Wim Mertens releases Aren lezen. This tetralogy was composed and recorded between 1995 and 2001. The composer considers Qua as the quest for sense in existence. As in architecture, Qua presents itself as ‘ opus incertum ’, built of irregular stone, unbordering our ideas about music  and the world. This release completes the release of the entire back catalogue of Wim Mertens on EMI Classics. Limited Edition 100 copies signed by Wim Mertens Order it now at    <a href="http://www.proxis.be/BENL/Specials/Muziek/Wim_Mertens___Qua_Lt___gesigneerd__/MUSIC_SP_24__detail.aspx">Proxis</a> New CD The world tout court in 14 chapters, as in Qua The WTC as some world, a facet of it The WTC only in its division The WTC as syncopation of what does not take place The WTC as frayed access The WTC as adequate as Qua The WTC as shared togetherness The WTC which begins over and over again The WTC as what arrives The WTC as touché and contacts The WTC showing the others's death The WTC as interval and trace of nothing The WTC as exposure and opening to its own strangeness The WTC as Qua - resonance The WTC as another story - ours, perhaps The world tout court is performed by the Wim Mertens Ensemble and is released on June 8th 2009 2 Releases EMI Classics With the box set Music and film Wim Mertens' contemporary music offers for the first time a good summary of his compositions for film and documentary from 1986 until 2008. 50 titles, among them 20 previously unreleased tracks, are thus connected to 14 long feature films, 5 documentaries and 1 architecture's presentation (The grasp of letting go). The box contains music for films produced in Iceland, the Netherlands, in Brazil, Korea, Germany, Belgium, France, in the USA and in England. Mertens collaborated for those occasions with - among others - the directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Marcelo Masagao, Frans Weisz, Tom Tykwer, Marion Hänsel, Peter Greenaway and Bülent Akinci. The composer also wrote the music of the documentaries about Willem Elsschot, Roger Raveel and Raoul Servais. Music and film also includes 2 live recordings of the music for the silent films The land beyond the sunset, 1912 by Harold Shaw and La femme de nulle part, 1923 by Louis Delluc, recorded in Lisbon in 1993. The presented compositions are varied: piano solo, piano and voice, pieces for multiple solo instruments, chamber music and symphonic works. At the same time as Music and film, the soundtrack of Paul Cox's film, Father Damien (1999) is also re-released. EMI Classics With L'heure du loup, Wim Mertens presents a work for large ensemble (strings, brass, drums and percussion, pianos and harp). L'heure du loup includes 11 compositions with French titles: Pas de chiffres, Hors-nature, Mal vu, Mal dit, Le mal, Pas de lutte, Même terre, La honte, Le regret, Plus de mots, Pas d'âge. This composition is a musical quest where Wim Mertens explores new horizons, while demonstrating an impeccable skill of the score. The composer exposes himself in this work, gliding elegantly between the day and the night, and the music subtly accompanies the listener towards that precise moment, L'heure du loup. This transition then expresses itself delicately through each instrument, each 'tone', each articulation. The result is an album of large musical richness, and which at the same time is easily listened to, where the music slowly reveals itself and guides the public where he shall want to go. Volume 1 Moins de mètre, assez de rythme Volume 2 In the absence of hindrance Volume 3 Cave musicam Volume 4 Not yet, no longer Volume 5 With no need for seeds Volume 6 The promise kept in advance (previously unreleased) Under the title Years without history Wim Mertens presents a selection of 6 concerts, recorded between 1986 and 2002. Those live recordings are released together in a box entitled 'Years without history, volumes 1- 6'. The volume 7 of the same series is released apart under the title Nosotros. It's a concert recorded in Gaasbeek in 2002. With the title Years without history, Mertens reacts against the idea of history as something not evolving, something which clearly belongs to the past. With those live recordings, the compositions have a second life after and next to the studio's creations. Music always asks to be newly played. That can be done with various orchestrations than those from the original recordings. So, we can find in this series, various orchestrations such as solo, duo, quartet or larger ensembles, and also with voice(s). Thus, the music serves in different ways. Moreover, the music presents itself on game mode. In playing. Years without history volumes 1-6: Volume 1 Moins de mètre, assez de rythme Live in Paris 1.10.1992    Volume 2 In the absence of hindrance Live in Gdansk 22.11.1998  Volume 3 Cave musicam Live in Bruges 29.10.1998  Volume 4 Not yet, no longer Live in Gdansk 9.11.2002  Volume 5 With no need for seeds Live in Madrid 2.12.1986  Volume 6 The promise kept in advance Live in Lisbon 6.6.1999 Volume 7 Nosotros Live in Gaasbeek, 14.7.2002 2009-11-07 Torhout, Belgium Wim Mertens Ensemble Cultuurcentrum de Brouckere String quintet, piano, voice 2009-11-05 Dendermonde, Belgium Wim Mertens Ensemble Belgica Theater String quintet, piano, voice 2009-10-31 Milano, Italy Wim Mertens Solo Conservatorio di Milano. Sala Verdi Solo piano, voice 2009-08-07 Bard (Aosta), Italy Wim Mertens Duo Forte di Bard Violin, piano, voice 2009-07-30 Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz), Spain Wim Mertens Pianotrio Jardines de los Museos de la Atalaya Open air Violin, cello, piano, voice Webdesign by Jurgen Van Hoof aka ZoB, http://www.zobweb.be