(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
The Flemish pianist Wim Mertens (1953), who also records under the pseudonym Soft Verdict, is an avant-garde composer capable of blending minimalism and serialism in works that evoke an almost Franciscan humility. From his early period in avant-garde circles, there is evidence in a cassette of video game noises and a 12" trio recording with the American expatriates Peter Gordon and Peter Principle.
His second album, Vergessen, is largely guided by the mechanical progressions of classical minimalism (Mildly Skeeming), but already features some composed and austere pieces reminiscent of Eno's "ambient" music (particularly the hypnotic and romantic geometry of Circular Breathing), as well as a sui generis, frenetic, and cadenced piano sonata like Four Mains. The second part of Inergys, a dance for a small ensemble in slow and hypnotic evolution, and the keyboard-and-viola duet of Multiple 12, overflowing with almost Renaissance sonorities, define a new form of minimalism—less rigid and more emotional—that Mertens would later call "petit musique de chambre."
In this direction of serene and romantic music lies the mini-album Struggle For Pleasure, featuring the touching piano sonata Close Cover, the surreal saltarello of Salernes (for small ensemble, saxophone, clarinet, electric piano, harp), the spectral Bresque (for harp and electronics), the jovial In C-like sarabande of Gentleman Of Leisure, and the driving Struggle For Pleasure (a miniature Rainbow In A Curved Air for piano, sax, and synth).
Mertens thus arrives at his masterpiece, the double album Maximizing The Audience, drawn from a theatrical performance. In it, the Belgian musician ventures into the territory of complex mechanistic serialism (as in Circles, for seven clarinets and soprano sax, and Whisper Me for viola, cello, soprano, and keyboards, one of his compositions most attuned to millennia-old religious atmospheres) without losing any of the humanity of his previous work, as in the recurring, profoundly sad theme of Lir, worthy of a romantic sonata yet entirely predefined in its glacial geometries, or in The Fosse, a funereal Lied repeating endlessly over a driving Nyman-like cadence.
These are small and brilliant chamber pieces, orchestrated for ensembles of two to three instruments and built on entirely elementary melodic and rhythmic phrases, layered and interwoven according to the canons of minimalism, conveying sensations of celestial peace.
The album A Man Of No Fortune, which contains six live "romances" for solo piano and voice (an extremely high voice, reminiscent of a castrato), inaugurates a new phase in which Mertens focuses on solo concerts for harp, clarinet, flute, or piano, in which a single chord can be repeated for minutes and the same syllable can be sung endlessly.
Casting No Shadow is thus a melodious madrigal imbued with painful and ecstatic religiosity akin to Hosianna Mantra, while You See is a driving display of romantic progressions. The moving cantabile quality of these pieces is worthy of Renaissance repertoires.
Representative works of this period include Musique A Un Voix (1987, seven pieces for solo saxophone, including Exitium), the medieval-inspired concept After Virtue, the minimalist motet A Visiting Card (1986), and above all the slow harp solo Educes Me (1986). Mertens also continues to re-orchestrate his most significant past pieces, bringing melodic elements to the forefront while camouflaging the theoretical processes that underpin them.
Cerebral yet communicative, his polyphonic flow of minimal patterns recalls medieval choral music, which was based on very similar premises, while rejecting both Riley’s trance and Branca’s monumentalism. Mertens is the only avant-garde theorist capable of composing sensitive and moving pieces that sound like supernatural abstractions of traditional concepts of melody, rhythm, and harmony. The piano sonata Lir and the motet Whisper Me are among the highest achievements of contemporary classical music.
An impressive number of mediocre releases characterized the 1990s:
Motives For Writing (Les Disques du Crepuscule, 1989),
No Testament (Les Disques du Crepuscule, 1990),
Strategie de la Rupture (1991), perhaps the best,
Epic That Never Was (1993), his first live recording,
Jeremiades (1995) for piano and voice, one of his most melodic works
(alas ruined by his annoying falsetto),
Shot and Echo (1992),
A Sense of Place (1992),
the movie soundtrack Lisa (1996),
Jardin Clos (1996) for small orchestra,
Sin Embargo (1997) for guitar,
triple-disc Integer Valor (1999) for orchestra,
If I Can (1999), a sort of career retrospective,
the movie soundtrack Father Damien (EMI, 1999),
Der Heisse Brei (2000) for piano and voice,
Un Respiro (Usura, 2005).
As manufacturing CDs got cheaper and cheaper, Mertens started releasing
just about anything he could think of. The results are mostly embarrassing:
he ended up proving that he had been one of the most over-rated composers of
his generation.
The trilogy Alle Dinghe (1980 -1990) contains the double-disc
Sources of Sleeplessness, the double-disc Vita Brevis ,
and the triple-disc Alle Dinghe , one less interesting than the other.
The tetralogy Gave Van Niets (1990 - 1994) offers even more music,
and even lower quality:
You'll Never Be Me (two discs),
Divided Loyalties (two discs),
Gave Van Niets (three discs),
Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter (three discs).
The trilogy Kere Weerom (1995 -1999) contains
Poema (two discs),
Kere Weerom (three discs), Decorum (two discs).
The tetralogy Aren Lezen (1995 -2001) shows no mercy:
If Five Is Part Of Ten (four discs),
Aren Lezen (four discs),
Kaosmos (three discs),
aRe (two discs).
This is music for people who want to yawn 24 hours a day.
Alle Dinghe, Gave van niets, Kere Weerom and Aren lezen made up the 37-disc cycle Qua.
To demonstrate how cheap the process of manufacturing CDs has become, Mertens
started releasing even recordings of his (absolutely pointless) live performances.
He also revisited eight of his most famous themes for orchestra on
Partes Extra Partes (2006).
Receptacle (2007) contains the 13-minute Send and the ten-minute Retranchement.
l'Heure du Loup (2008) contains music for chamber ensemble.
Un Respiro (2008)
Music and Film (2009) is a triple-disc anthology.
The World Tout Court (2009) contains the twelve-minute Apatride.
Zee versus Zed (2010)
Series of Ands/ Immediate Givens (2011) is a double-disc of chamber music, including the 13-minute In Zones.
A Starry Wisdom (2012)
When Tool met Wood (2012)
Charaktersketch (2015)
What are We, Locks, to Do? (2016)
Dust of Truths (2016)
Double Entendre (2016) contains short pieces with vocalist
Patricia Van Heukelom.
Cran aux Œufs (2017) collects Charaktersketch and What are We, Locks, to Do?
That Which is Not (2018)
Inescapable (2019) is a four-disc compilation.
The Gaze of the West (2020)
The double album Heroides (2022) contains a disc of piano solos and a disc of ensemble works.
Voice of the Living (2023)
Ranges of Robustness (Ursula, 2024)
