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 date in Spain 26 February 2013. Precisely 30 years after the release of Struggle for pleasure from the composer Wim Mertens he releases a double CD with, alongside the original titles, a selection of 10 previously unreleased tracks from his archives. This material date from the early 80's and has been complemented with 2 new recordings of the tracks Salernes and Gentleman of leisure. Mertens composed those pieces principally in Salernes (south of France) at the beginning of the 80's. On 15th and 16th March those titles will be entirely performed by the Wim Mertens Ensemble - 8 musicians - for the concerts series Rewind at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. www.abconcerts.be 2011 has been a special year for Wim Mertens. For the 'Festival van Vlaanderen' in Gent Mertens composed 'A Starry Wisdom' and performed two sold out concerts in the Cathedral St Baafs (solo piano) and with his Ensemble in the Capitol. For the opening of the new building for the laboratory Education and Research 4, on 8th December 2011, Wim Mertens presented with a large ensemble the title '<A href="http://www.wimmertens.be/videos/movies/TellesQuelles.flv">Telles Quelles</A>', a work that Mertens - himself a former student of the university KU Leuven - has composed especially for this occasion. He has been inspired by, among others, the scientific literature by the researchers Bart Destrooper, Peter Carmeliet and Catherine Verfaillie. The Spanish video artist Cristóbal Vila has been asked to create a 3D video for the track. KU Leuven  <A href="http://nieuws.kuleuven.be/node/10590">http://nieuws.kuleuven.be/node/10590</A> Wim Mertens has also been commissioned to write and present live a composition by the city of Guimarães, Portugal, Capital of Culture 2012. He will perform on March 7th with the Fundação Orquestra Estúdio directed by Rui Massena at the CC Vila Flor in Guimarães for the world premiere of 'When Tool met Wood'. <A href="http://www.ccvf.pt/">http://www.ccvf.pt/</A> 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. 2013-05-18 Cadiz, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Teatro Falla (Sopranosaxophone, cello, piano, voice) 2013-05-17 Alcobendas, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Auditorio (Sopranosaxophone, cello, piano, voice) 2013-05-16 Ubeda, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Auditorio del Hospital de Santiago (Sopranosaxophone, cello, piano, voice) 2013-05-04 Gijon, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Teatro Jovellanos (Sopranosaxophone, cello, piano, voice) 2013-05-03 Santiago de Compostela, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Auditorio de Galicia (Sopranosaxophone, cello, piano, voice) 2013-04-19 Cordoba, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Gran Teatro (Violin, cello, piano, voice) 2013-04-18 Alcazar de S. Juan, Spain Wim Mertens Trio Auditorio Alcazar de S. Juan (Violin, cello, piano, voice) 2013-03-15 Gent, Belgium Wim Mertens Solo piano Handelsbeurs 2013-02-25 Hasselt, Belgium Wim Mertens Solo piano CCHA - Schouwburg 2013-02-20 Borgerhout (Antwerpen), Belgium Wim Mertens Solo piano De Roma 2013-02-19 Brugge, Belgium Wim Mertens Solo piano Stadsschouwburg 2013-01-24 Aarschot, Belgium Wim Mertens Trio Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk (Violin, cello, piano, voice) Webdesign by Jurgen Van Hoof aka ZoB, http://www.zobweb.be