A romantic and emotioning world, full of music's changes, lives in the themes of Wim Mertens. 48 years old, the Belgian artist doesn't change his way neither with Integer Valor, his last album, cut for the label "Materiali Sonori". The release recalls the early Mertens experimental works toghether with the Soft Verdict. "It's only the natural evolution of my music", Mertens explained in a perfect English, whose some well marked "h" betray his Flemish birth. "My formula is simple: a great orchestra (strings, brass, guitars, bass, percussions and piano), with instrumental acoustic themes".
Sounds and images
Some critics place Mertens in the indefinite galaxy of the "ambient music", full of ecstatic atmospheres. But the Flemish composer is miles away from the coldness of many ambient releases: "My aim is to communicate the emotions through music: excitation, nostalgia, conflicts, passion. I use melody because I think it's the best way to express them". Peter Greenaway knows it well. The English director of "The belly of an architect" asked Mertens to compose the film's soundtrack, and the result was one of the best works of the Belgian composer. Not only has been Mertens working with cinema, but he has also been writing his music for Jan Fabre theatre works and for the complex projects of Louise Delluc and Harold Shaw. He composed the soundtracks of the last Lisbon Expo too. "I like working for cinema and theatre, but music comes always before for me: only through the notes I can create images", he says.
Soft Verdict is the name with which the Belgian composer started to play when he was 28. More than a band, it was a group of musicians leaded by Mertens. Struggle for pleasure was the highest moment of that season, with a music that was in balance between romanticism and post-modern experimentation.
In spite of his being a refined experimenter, Mertens has never been a snobbish artist and he always tried to enlarge his audience. So I asked him: your debut album was called For amusement only, do you think your music can be considered also an 'amusement'? "I do hope so. Amusement is a bit banal expression, but I seek to have the largest audience I can" (Maximizing the audience is the title of one of his album). Anyway, I want that my music is as much popular as it can be".
An inexhaustible inspiration
Mertens has always been a very prolific composer. Only during 1991 he cut seven albums, in 1994 he cut ten. "It doesn't matter to be particularly productive. Bach had to compose one piece a week: at that time that was considered normal. But today the record industry wants an album a year: nothing more, nothing less. If I cut seven albums a year it's because I think it is necessary, even though the outlines of the record industry are different. I'm not an arrogant. There is a lot of music in my head. If you give me paper and pencil, I will begin writing music now: it will take me an hour at least. No problems".
In almost twenty years of career, Mertens has always gone along to his road. He never liked his music to be defined as "minimalist". "In the Sixties and in the Seventies, the Minimalism was an alternative to the historical avantgarde, but then people like Glass and Reich were trapped into their academic stiffness. The Minimalism is only the starting point of my job".
The Minimalism was born during the Seventies, with Philip Glass' works. His intuitions marked the musical scenes since his first tour in Europe. Glass had already met David Bowie and Brian Eno after a ceremony in the Royal Academy of Music of London in 1971. In Germany Glass had dealt with avantgarde bands and electronic pioneers like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. And some echoes of his style could be found even in the disco-music songs written by Giorgio Moroder for Donna Summer and in British synth-pop bands like Human League. But the disciples of Glass were mainly the "new wave" composers, Michael Nyman, Lost Jockey, Regular Music, Soft Verdict and other artists of music labels like the Factory and the Belgian Disques du Crépuscule.
Music of frontier
In Mertens music you can notice one of the main feature of Glass works: repetition. A style that has two aims: to let a space for the listener in the river of music and emotions, and to represent the sensation of pleasure. But in Mertens themes, the technique of the repetition has even more meanings. His music is mainly traditional and it is composed consequently. It's impossible to consider it out of the minimalist tracks, but you can't lock it up in Glass school.
But what does Mertens think about the music of today? "A revolution is happening. There is much more democracy: synthetizers are within everyone's reach. Anyone can have sophisticated instruments to compose. And you don't have to be obsequious to an artist or to a style".
In Mertens compositions, crepuscular melodies, baroque sounds and minimalistic intuitions are melted into graceful themes, dominated by his piano. The influence of classic chamber music is clear, and between the notes you can feel a great sense of spirituality. "I don't believe in God ", he says, "but I'm influenced by the European culture, which is full of spirituality. Besides, my country is a land of frontier, and my music takes over all those contaminations".
Wim Mertens ends the interview keeping the same kindness he had begun with. He even thanks us for our attention, though what he did during these years deserved much more attention from the press. Sometimes, in a pirates world as music is, you can even run into a gentlemen.
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