Wim Mertens - Minimalism with a human face

From his beginnings with Soft Verdict to soundtracks for Peter Greenaway and Jan Fabre, through to the "orchestral" evolution of his most recent projects: the Belgian composer has managed to update Philip Glass's minimalist insights with a thrilling range of harmonies

by Giampiero Bigazzi

When I think of Wim Mertens, refined musician and intellectual, and of his music, light yet inwardly complex, I picture moments of quiet, romantic, minimal, intimate everyday life. Small but intense rooms full of light, a glow that warms you from within. Windows offering glimpses of the deep green of the Ardennes or the rolling flatness of Flanders. I picture a light wind, the kind that wakes you up and forces you to think, with the North Sea, cold yet compelling, as a backdrop.

A Flemish pianist and composer, Mertens has established himself as an explorer of unconventional music, a paradigmatic figure within the fragmented universe of the European avant-garde. His compositions, shaped by clear echoes of the classical tradition and a melodic vocation rooted in popular music, appear essentially light and full of beauty, yet also intrinsically intricate, often structured in bold, labyrinthine forms. Developed through a tangled web of quotations and references.

An intense body of work always balanced between theory and practice: the long series of releases, from albums for piano and voice to those made with original small orchestras, to those devoted to a single instrument (all works that never hide the principle of giving the record its rightful place as an art object), the soundtracks for film and theatre, the prolific concert activity carried out on stages around the world. Stories told not through words, but through the intimate delicacy of his own personal vocal language. Unusual orchestrations, never aloof.

Over the course of his long career, he has struck a chord with the most sensitive souls, but perhaps also with a share of humanity that is contradictory and parched, troubled yet open to intellectual freedom. To a secular spirituality. To the use of intelligence. And therefore inclined towards a richness of feeling.

Mertens is a true master of avant-garde popularisation, with his music that is both learned and accessible. A music without borders, without fears, without a name.

Ride the wave of great music

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Wim Mertens on OndaRock

Discography

At Home, Not At Home (Le Disques Du Crepuscule, 1982)	6
For Amusement Only (Le Disques Du Crepuscule, 1982)	7
Vergessen (Le Disques Du Crepuscule, 1982)	6.5
Struggle For Pleasure (1983)	9
A Visiting Card (1984)
Maximizing The Audience (Le Disques Du Crepuscule, 1985)	8
Hirose (1985)
Close Cover (Windham Hill, 1986)	7
Instrumental Songs (A&M, 1986)
A Man Of No Fortune, And With A Name To Come (1986)	7
Educes Me (1987)	6
The Belly Of An Architect (soundtrack, 1987)	8
After Virtue (1988)
Motives For Writing (1989)
No Testament (1990)
Sources Of Sleeplessness (1991)
Vita Brevis (1991)
Alle Dinghe (1991)	6
Stratégie de la Rupture (Crepuscule, 1991)	7
Hufhuf (1991)
Houfnice (1992)
Shot And Echo (Crepuscule, 1993)	6
A Sense Of Place (1993)
Epic That Never Was (Crepuscule, 1994)
Gave Van Niets (Crepuscule, 1994)
Jérémiades (Crepuscule, 1995)
Entre Dos Mares (1996)
Jardin Clos (Crepuscule, 1996)
Lisa (Crepuscule, 1996)
As Hay In The Sun (1996)
Sin Embargo (1997)
Best Of (anthology, 1997)
In 3 or 4 Days (1998)
And Bring You Back (1998)
Integer Valor (1999)
Integer Valor/ Integràle: To Fill In The Blank (1999)	7
Integer Valor/ Integràle: Written Conversation (1999)
Integer Valor/ Integràle: Full Of Cobbles (1999)
Father Damien (1999)
Kere Weerom Part I: Poema (1999)
Kere Weerom Part II: Kere Weerom (1999)
Kere Weerom Part III: Decorum (1999)
If I Can (2000)
Der Heisse Brei (Crepuscule, 2000)
At Home, Not At Home (2001)
Aren Lezen Part I: If Five Is Part Of Ten (2001)
Aren Lezen Part II: Aren Lezen (2001)
Aren Lezen Part III: Kaosmos (2001)
Aren Lezen Part IV: a-Re (2001)
Years Without History, Vol. 1: Moins De Mètre, Assez De Rythme (2002)
Years Without History, Vol. 2: In The Absence Of Hindrance (2002)
Years Without History, Vol. 3: Cave Musicam (2002)
Wim Mertens Moment - Box Set (anthology, 2002)
Years Without History, Vol. 4: No Yet, No Longer (2003)
Skopos (2003)
Years Without History, Vol. 4: With No Need For Seeds (2003)
Shot And Echo/A Sense Of Place (2003)
Un Respiro (2005)
Parte Extra Partes (2006)
Composition for the Dior Homme fashion show (2008)
Platinum Collection (anthology, 2008)
L'Heure du loup (2008)
Years Without History - vol. 1–6 (2008)
Years Without History - vol. 7: Nosotros (2008)
Music And Film (anthology, 3 cd, 2009)
The World Tout Court (2009)
QUA (37-CD reissue set of the extended cycle works Alle Dinghe, Gave van Niets, Kere Weerom and Aren Lezen) (2009)
Zee versus Zed (2010)
Series of Ands/Immediate Givens (2cd, 2010)
Open Continuum/Tenerife Symphony Orchestra (OST) (2 cd + 1 Dvd, 2011)
Struggle for Pleasure (by Soft Verdict)/ Double Entendre (by Wim Mertens) (3 cd set, 2011)
A Starry Wisdom (2012)
When Tool Met Wood (2012)
Charaktersketch (2015)
What Are We, Locks, To Do? (2016)
Dust Of Truths (2016)
Cran aux Œufs (2017)
That Which Is Not (2018)
Certain Nuances Excepted (Live In Bruges) (2 cd, 2019)
Inescapable 1980-2020 (box set, 4 cd, 2020)
The Gaze Of The West (2020)