Wim Mertens

Category:componist, solist, hedendaagse componist, hedendaagse muziek
Genre(s):21ste eeuw / hedendaags, 20ste eeuw, minimal music & neo-klassiek, filmmuziek
Instrument(s):piano
Actual/previous members:Geert De Vos

Short description

Mertens is a multi-talented composer whose output includes theatre music, soundtracks and many jingles for radio and television. He refuses to publish or distribute his scores in any way (for the time being). His music can thus only be heard live or on CD. This reflects the composer’s wish to put an emphasis on the sound and not on the written document or reproductions other than recordings.

Biography

The Belgian composer Wim Mertens (born 1953) is an international recording and performing artist who has given countless concerts, as a soloist and with his ensemble, all over Europe, North and Central America, Japan, Thailand and in Russia. He initially studied at the Conservatory of Brussels and graduated in political and social sciences at the K.U. Leuven and Musicology at the R.U. Gent. Mertens is also the author of American Minimal Music (1980), the first book to deal in depth with the school of American repetitive music. His early landmark albums are Vergessen and Struggle for Pleasure (1982), including Close Cover, still one of his classics. In 1998, Mertens became the Cultural Ambassador of Flanders. Since 1980, Mertens has composed pieces in different formats, from short, accessible songs or Lieder to magnanimous and complex three- and four-part cycles, and for different settings: from solo piano to chamber music ensembles and symphony orchestra. He often writes for unusual instrumentations: twelve piccolos, ten bass trombones, thirteen clarinets. Since his recording debut in 1980, titled For Amusement Only, an electronic composition for pinball machines, Wim Mertens has released more than 65 albums.

Selective discography

HeroïdesHeroïdes (2022)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
The Gaze of the WestThe Gaze of the West (2020)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
Certain Nuances Excepted - Live in BrugesCertain Nuances Excepted - Live in Bruges (2019)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
That which is notThat which is not (2018)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
Nature's LargessNature's Largess (2017)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
Cran aux oeufsCran aux oeufs (2017)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
Dust of truthsDust of truths (2016)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
What are we, locks, to do?What are we, locks, to do? (2016)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
CharaktersketchCharaktersketch (2015)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens
A starry wisdomA starry wisdom (2012)
Minimal music & neo-classical
Wim Mertens

Selectieve discografie als componist

Made in BelgiumMade in Belgium (2012)
classical crossover, Contemporary folk
Aranis, Jan Kuijken, Wouter Vandenabeele, Ward De Vleeschhouwer, Wim Mertens, Arne Van Dongen, Geert Waegeman, Luc De Gezelle (...)

Related Items

News:30 jaar Wim Mertens gevierd met rerelease Struggle for Pleasure (06.03.2012)
Press Clips:
(Wat is dit?)
Wim Mertens (11.2010)
Organisations:Usura Music (uitgever, management)
External links:Wim Mertens op Spotify
Wim Mertens op Instagram
Wim Mertens op Facebook
Componistenfiche Wim Mertens