Random and Useless Thoughts from Internationally-Published Author RAYMOND BENSON................ If You Have Reached This Page From RAYMONDBENSON.COM and Wish to Return, CLICK HERE.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Review of Criterion's New Blu-ray of "Hiroshima Mon Amour"
My review of The Criterion Collection's new Blu-ray release of Alain Resnais' "Hiroshima Mon Amour" is up at Cinema Retro.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Review of Criterion's New Blu-ray of "The Killers"
My review of The Criterion Collection's new Blu-ray release of "The Killers" Double Bill is up at Cinema Retro.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Review of Criterion's New Blu-ray of Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King"
My review of The Criterion Collection's new Blu-ray release of Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King," starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, is at Cinema Retro.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
The "Progressive Classical Music" of Wim Mertens
THE "PROGRESSIVE CLASSICAL MUSIC" OF WIM MERTENS
by Raymond Benson
One of my favorite
composers is a Belgian named Wim Mertens. He is fairly well-known in Europe,
but not many people in the U.S. have heard of him. This is a crime. With his
latest CD, Charaktersketch, just
released, I felt inspired to revisit and update an article I wrote that was
published in 1998 in Progression Magazine.
I had the pleasure of meeting Wim in Brussels that year when I was researching
my third James Bond novel, High Time to Kill. In fact, I put Wim in the book—music is playing in a restaurant where
007 and his latest girlfriend are dining. She responds to the music, Bond asks
what it is, and she tells him that it’s Wim Mertens. I strongly recommend that
anyone interested in contemporary classical, modern, or progressive music seek
out Wim Mertens.
Wim Mertens and me in 1998.
***
When the Belgian/Flemish composer Wim Mertens is asked how
he would classify his own music, he raises his hands in a bewildered gesture. "These
labels are changing from country to country," he says. "In Spain it's
different from Mexico. It's 'New Age' in one store, in another it's 'New
Music.' I've seen it as 'Minimal Music' or 'Contemporary Music.' In some retail
outlets I've seen my CDs classified under 'Classical,' 'Pop Music,' and 'Jazz.'
Even in Belgium it's changing from store to store. Is that a good or bad
thing?-- I don't know. I cannot change it. The only label I can propose is
'Contemporary Music.' It's a complicated thing that is never resolved."
When the description "Progressive Classical Music"
is suggested, he laughs. "That is a new one! A new label! Doesn't sound
very commercial! I've answered that question at least fifty times. If I say my
music is produced in the tradition of written music, that is not really true
because only about 80% of it is written music. Much of it is scored on the
piano but I can also say that my music comes from no tradition, and that is
more interesting for me. I see myself not hampered by elements that I don't do
myself. This comes from a long tradition passed down from generation to
generation—my father and his father, etc.—that's how I prefer to see it. I work
from piece to piece and project to project. Defining it is irrelevant."
Therein lies the key to the simply amazing music produced by
this relatively unknown (in America) composer and musician. Long-standing
admirers of progressive rock, film music, and so-called contemporary classical
music, might honestly say that "progressive classical music" fits the
bill. Some listeners would most certainly lump Wim Mertens in the same category
as Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and other
practitioners of modern classical, minimalist music. It is arguable that
Mertens goes beyond these extraordinary talents by imbuing his own work with
more dynamics, emotion, melody, and ambition. If his music was performed by a
rock band format, it would definitely be in the "progressive rock"
family. However, Wim Mertens chooses to
use classically-oriented ensembles (as do Glass, Nyman, et. al.) as well as a
personal, solo-piano and voice combination that is totally unique.
Mertens' comment that his music comes from generations of
tradition is quite true. His father, Henri Mertens, was not a professional
musician, but he was a musician who constantly filled the home with music (and
even recorded an album). He was a singer and played piano. "It's because
of my father that I spontaneously get in touch with music," Mertens says. "My
brother and two sisters—we all started in music."
Wim Mertens was born in Belgium in 1953, close to the Dutch
border, in a town called Neerpelt. At the age of eight he went to music school,
where he first studied classical guitar. From a very early age he was composing
songs. He went to the Genk Music Academy at the age of twelve, and finished
when he was eighteen. Going on to university, Mertens attended the Music
Conservatory in Brussels, but he gave up music for a while and chose to study
social and political sciences and communications. He went back to the main
university in Leuven, on the Flemish side of Belgium, at the age of twenty-two,
to study Musicology, and later dug into Contemporary Music at the university in
Ghent. His interest in modern classical music resulted in the writing of a
book, American Minimal Music, which
was published in Flemish in 1980 by Kahn Publishers, and was later published in
English in America and the UK in 1983.
Mertens' book was an intelligent analysis of the work of composers like
Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley.
Naturally, these composers served as Mertens' main musical influences.
"These names were influences, yes, but more important
was that when I went to study the situation on the European side of music in
the 70s, for many reasons I felt at that time I didn't have a plan to start
recording or composing. I felt that the European avant-garde music was not what
I was looking for. It was not my starting point, I had to find my information
somewhere else. It was impossible to escape from that school, though. It helped
me to define my own music by moving away from the European experience. When I
listen to music—I went through all the European avant-garde, but I also listen
to American music and contemporary jazz—Monk, Steve Lacey, etc. I also listen
to medieval music. For three years I worked as a music journalist and I had to
listen to everything!"
Mertens began recording in 1980 using the name Soft Verdict.
"It was an artist name that I used from 1980 to 1984," he explains. "Soft
Verdict was the name I used to present my music." (Since that time, the
Soft Verdict albums have been re-released under Wim Mertens' own name.) "My
first studio recording was produced by the American, Peter Gordon. It was a
single called “At Home/Not At Home.” He introduced me to the commercial
recording studio. Soft Verdict was not a group, but I used bass, drums,
saxophone, harp, vibes, piano, guitar... the harp was from my classical guitar
experience, and the saxophone did what I eventually came to do with my voice. The
name came from the contradiction of words—a verdict is not soft, so I liked
that contradiction."
Wim Mertens is perhaps most well-known in America for two
albums released on the New Age label Windham Hill—Close Cover in 1986, and Whisper
Me in 1988. (Mertens is also known in the U.S. for his score for Peter
Greenaway's 1987 film, The Belly of an
Architect.) Both of the Windham Hill
albums were anthologies of works taken from Mertens' original Belgian albums
released between 1982 and 1987. His "signature" piece, "Close Cover," a beautiful and haunting song scored for piano and ensemble, appeared
on several Windham Hill samplers and anthologies. Unfortunately, these two
albums went nowhere, and the label chose not to pursue the artist any further
(the two titles are now out of print). It was the Windham Hill compilations
that first attracted the few American listeners to Wim Mertens' music. The real
treasures, though, are to be found in his works produced post-1986. For those
who have been aware and interested in Wim Mertens' music, they have had to
search high and low in import shops, over the internet, or even go to foreign
countries to find them.
What is most extraordinary is that this prolific composer
has released nearly sixty albums between 1980 and the present, not including
compilations!
Mertens' work can easily be placed into three distinctive
categories of music. The first is his ensemble work, which is arguably the most
interesting and accessible. From his first ensemble album, Vergessen (1982), to his brand new CD, Charaktersketch (2015), Mertens has pushed the boundaries of the
ensemble by using brass and string instruments as percussion. Using less repetition
than his contemporaries, Mertens blows Glass and Nyman out of the water with
high-energy, tension-filled, incredibly fast pieces such as the
less-than-two-minute-long "Watch!" (from 1989's Motives for Writing)—a recommended cut for introducing someone to
Wim Mertens. “’Watch!’ is a special piece," Mertens says. "In a
minute and a half you have this kind of excitement in it that goes beyond the
normal expectance you have from such a short piece. We do it live these days. I have a new band
which is bass trombone, trumpet, two saxophones, piano, drums, and we are
actually touring a lot these days."
At the same time, Mertens is capable of haunting, beautiful
melodies, such as "Au Delá du Fleuve" from Integer Valor (1998). Sometimes there is such an inexplicable
element of sadness in the music that it causes you to stop whatever you’re doing
and just listen. "Yes," Mertens nods, "many people have
mentioned the sad quality in my music. I cannot deny it, but I cannot confirm
it either. To do that, I would be too much in it, or I would have to identify
with it. I don't have enough distance to say yes or no. Probably that emotion you feel is something
you have felt in some other way in your life, and the music has somehow tapped
into it," he explains.
All of Mertens' ensemble works combine various instruments
(usually with a piano at the forefront), and sometimes voice, to create a
continuing progression of similarly-themed musical textures. Of all of Mertens'
music, it is recommended that the beginning listener start with any of the
ensemble CDs—especially Struggle for
Pleasure (1983), Motives for Writing (1989),
Shot and Echo (1992), Jardin Clos (1996), Integer Valor (1998, or the full-length epic, Integer Valor Integrale from 1999), Skopos
(2003), Receptacle (2007), Zee Versus Zed (2010), A Starry Wisdom (2012), When Tool Met Wood (2013), or the
latest, Charaktersketch (2015).
The second category of Wim Mertens' music falls into the
"solo piano and voice" department. Whereas these works can more
easily be classified as "New Age," Mertens has brought something
entirely unique and personal to the concept. He sings in a characteristically
high-pitched countertenor voice, using a carefully crafted and imaginary
personal language that is improvised over the structured piano pieces. On first
hearing, one might find this quite strange. Repeated listenings, however,
result in a subconscious connection between the composer and his audience that
ultimately moves into a purely emotional level. In the end, it doesn't matter
that one doesn't understand the words he's singing. It's the emotional
intensity of the phrasings that finally affects the listener. If Jon Anderson
of Yes uses lyrics and his own voice as "an instrument," then Wim
Mertens does the same thing in a much more original and dynamic way.
"The words are not related to one single
language," Mertens says. "I can use different languages, I can even
sing in English sentences or words. I use names of friends, or phrases, or
whatever. I also write phonetically for other singers to sing. Since the end of
1984, I started using voice and singing in this kind of language. It's been
there now for decades. I'm not sure where it comes from. I created it, it was a
spontaneous way of singing. It probably has to do with the fact that Belgium is
a mixed language country—there is French, there is Dutch/Flemish, German—and
probably also I needed a language that was conducive to musical sounds. I could
emphasize the dynamics and be very free to do what I want to do. Most of my
music is written out, but the singing is the only element that is changing or
improvised in concerts. While the instrumentation is constant, the voice might
change nightly."
Does this language tell a story? "I cannot imagine that
the words would not tell a story, but at the same time, if they were spoken
there is not such a story-telling thing as we know from pop songs of today. Sometimes
people tell me that I'm using the voice as an instrument, but I don't really
think so. I use the voice in a very subjective way. The voice is the subject of
the piece, it is the only vocal means I have to express myself and I've always
used that language wherever I am. All of the information is in that voice. I
was very shy to sing for a long time, and it was tentative at first. I was
actually singing in the background on “Close Cover,” but that was very subtle. I
was self-conscious at first because I'm singing here [pointing to his throat]
and not here [pointing to his diaphragm]. I consulted a specialist to see if I
could hurt my throat that way, but I was okay. It's a technique used in
medieval music. I began using the vocal element more prominently in the album Maximizing the Audience [1984]. When I
compose these songs, the piano doesn't come before the voice or vice versa. They're
together, always together. I improvise the music and use different techniques
to get it out, which is very difficult. But after it's done I write out the
piano parts. Sometimes I add a second
piano track, as in the song “Lir” (from Maximizing
the Audience).
As in his ensemble works, Wim Mertens' albums of "piano
and voice" follow a progression and are essentially parts of a series that
began with A Man of No Fortune and With a
Name to Come (1986) and evolved to the latest piece in this category, Un Respiro (2005). Other notable
piano and voice albums are After Virtue
(1988), Strategie De La Rupture
(1991), Jeremiades (1995), and Un Respiro (2005).
The third category of Mertens' music could only be called
avant-garde experimental music that is epic in nature. This class of the
composer's work is the most ambitious and most difficult to grasp. Some critics
might call these pieces "self-indulgent," "tiresome," or
even "bombastic." In truth, however, they are honest expressions of a
minimalist nature taken to extreme lengths. They are magnanimous and complex
three and four part "cycles," composed for different settings for
solo piano, solo woodwinds or brass, or chamber music ensembles. The music is
often written for unusual instrumentations using multi-track recording—twelve
piccolos, ten bass trombones, or thirteen clarinets.
In fact, Wim Mertens' very first recorded album, For Amusement Only (1980), features no
musical instruments at all, but rather the sounds made by pinball machines—edited
and constructed to form rhythmic, melodic patterns. "It was in 1979-1980,
and I had not written anything. At that moment there was no way I could imagine
that I would be a commercial recording artist because I had no experience with
classical musicians or a studio. Antwerp, in Belgium, imported pinball machines
made by Bally. We had a project with some friends there and we listened to
these sounds. We would record them and edit them and use the Nagra machine, the
only professional tape recorder in radio stations all over the world at the
time. I worked for national radio then, and we taped many hours and used titles
like “Space Invader” and “Fireball,” which were actual names of pinball games. I
think it was an interesting way for me to use sounds that were already there. Bally
International gave me two or three machines for a long period, and we performed
the pieces in a multimedia program in Belgium, Holland, and France. We used a
combination of video and tapes and manipulation of the machines themselves. It
was my first important work. The title came from the warning label on the
machines—'For Amusement Only.'"
The 1985 album Instrumental
Songs continued the experimental work, using riffs performed entirely on a
single wind instrument. Then came the sets of epic, ambitious projects that
eventually totaled thirty-seven disks of music—Alle Dinghe (1991), Gave Van
Niets (1994), Kere Weerom (1999),
and Aren Lezen (2001). (All of these
works are now available in the box set entitled QUA (2009). The enormity of the projects even overwhelm the
composer himself. These are daring and confounding works. For example, one
entire disk (approximately an hour in duration) of Gave Van Niets is played entirely with multi-tracked bass trombones
by virtuoso Eddy Verdonck. To say that the music is slightly inaccessible is an
understatement; yet, there is a power and energy in the compositions that is
undoubtedly startling. (I personally
find these works to be great background music for writing!)
"I think I went very far in terms of defining the
musical language and musical syntaxes," he muses. "It was a very
ambitious project and I've always said that I was not really interested in the
music as such; it is something else that I cannot define. I'm not dealing with
the musical language, it is more like I'm trying to touch my personal
intelligence beyond the music. The music is very irrational, it's a different
approach."
The four epic cycles in QUA
are most certainly meant for the adventurous, seasoned listener.
A fourth category might be in order for Wim Mertens. In
1997, he released an album of solo classical guitar called Sin Embargo. It is such a peaceful, tranquil album that it would
probably be best enjoyed with one of Belgium's famous gourmet dinners and a few
bottles of fine wine. "That album came out in 1997 but was recorded in
1991. It stayed somewhere else for several years. I rely more and more on the
guitar in arrangements with the ensemble music now."
Embracing all of these "categories" is Wim
Mertens' work for film and theatre. "I've done several films, but most of
these were never really seen outside of Belgium. I worked with Peter Greenaway
in 1986 on The Belly of an Architect.
Only half of the music was composed for the film. The other half was picked
from existing pieces that had appeared on my albums released up to that point. The
music was different from what he did in other movies. [Greenaway usually
employs Michael Nyman to score his films.] The music was less conceptual, but
the film is, too." Along with the
film work, Mertens composed the music for the 1984 performance of Jan Fabre's
Power of the Theatrical Madness at the Venice Biennial, and other works for the
stage. A compilation of many of Mertens’ work for film was collected in the
3-disk set, Music and Film (2009).
So why hasn't such a prolific, dynamic composer been
discovered in America? Mertens shakes his head. "Most of my audiences have
been specifically in Italy. Spain is very good, and so is Greece and Portugal. Why
me, being such a Nordic type, why am I so successful in these Mediterranean
countries, I don't know! I'm fairly well known in Germany, Holland, and of
course, in Belgium. I have fans in England. As for America... not enough
exposure perhaps? I don't know. I always hope one day it will happen. Is my
music too European? I don't think so."
The lack of success in America doesn't seem to bother
Mertens too much, seeing that releasing nearly sixty albums in thirty-five
years is a formidable achievement in and of itself. When asked what other
activities occupy his time besides music, Mertens shrugs and answers,
"Literature has always interested me more than music anyway."
***
Readers interested in sampling some of Wim Mertens' music
might do well with the 2008 3-disk compilation, Platinum Collection, an anthology which indeed contains some of
the more memorable moments from the composer's ensemble and piano/voice works. Do
check out the official website for more information.
And here are some more YouTube cuts:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)