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DTSTART:20120316T200000
DTEND:20120316T223000
SUMMARY:Wim Mertens
LOCATION:AB Theater (Anspachlaan 110\, 1000 Brussel)
DESCRIPTION:◄◄ REWINDIn ‘07\, AB launched a timeless series:\n◄◄ REWIND. Central to this series are Belgian musicians\nwho perform ‘their classic’. Call it a milestone in\ntheir career or go a step further: a key record for popular\nBelgian music. Often\, but not always\, we're talking\nabout albums that are etched into collective memory.\nLet's just say: points of reference in the landscape of\nBelgian music. So each season a number of performers play\ntheir entire ‘pièce de résistance’. Entirely?\nThat's right\, in the exact order that they want to tell\ntheir story now or wanted to tell it at the time of its\nsuccess.With ◄◄ REWIND AB also contributes to the\nactivation of Belgium's musical heritage. Those who have\nalready passed in review: ‘Royalty In Exile’ (The\nScabs)\, ‘Gorky’ (by Gorki)\, ‘1981-1984’ (The Neon\nJudgement)\, ‘The Kids’ (The Kids)\, ‘Nooit Meer\nDrinken’ (Raymond Van Het Groenewoud)\, ‘Op Zoek Naar\nRomantiek’ (Guido Belcanto) and also ‘Jonge Helden’ by\nArbeid Adelt!The three Belgian classics pivotal to this new\nissue: De Mens who present their effervescent debut ‘De\nMens’ from ’92\, Luc Van Acker who picks up the thread\nof ‘The Ship’ from ’84\, and also Wim Mertens with his\nunder-appreciated album ‘Struggle For Pleasure’\n(’82).Just as previous performers\, they too will be\nhonoured with an official stone-laying ceremony in the\nSteenstraat next to AB: in recognition of their contribution\nto Belgian (pop) music.    ◄◄ REWIND: Wim Mertens plays\n‘Struggle For Pleasure’ (1982)Wim Mertens'\n‘Struggle For Pleasure’ was released in ’82 and –\naccording to Wim Mertens – is a part of a ‘triptych’\nincluding the albums ‘At Home – Not At Home’ (’80)\nand ‘Vergessen’ (’82). ‘Struggle For Pleasure’ is\nnow the most successful Wim Mertens album. Writer Jan\nDelvaux calls this album ‘One of the much maligned\nmasterpieces of Belgian music’. The two most well-known\ncompositions on this album are undoubtedly the title song\n(that turned up for a while in Proximus advertisements) and\nalso ‘Close Cover’ that was used as theme tune for De\nNachtradio on the former BRT. Both songs would later also\nend up on the soundtrack of Peter Greenaway’s ‘The Belly\nof An Architect’\, which at the same time gave Mertens\ninternational elan. The Wire once described both songs as\n“cunning\, concise compositions that deserve their\nsuccess”. What's more\, Belgian techno producers\nMinimalistix reworked both songs in '00-'01 with\nEuropean hit listings as a result.Wim Mertens has his roots\nin the school of American minimal music. What's more:\nhis book ‘American Minimal Music’ was published in\n’80\, the same year his debut ‘For Amusement Only’ was\nreleased. In the book he scrutinized American minimalists\nlike Terry Riley\, La Monte Young and Philip Glass. At the\ntime he wanted to distance himself from ‘the score as\n‘artwork’’ (see: Xenakis\, Cage\, Stockhausen\,…)\nand return to the source\, or: be gone with the rational and\nfocus on the emotional.In that period\, Wim Mertens received\nmore recognition internationally than locally. So it was\nthat he toured in Italy\, Japan and Greece\, even before\nhe'd been booked in his own country - like in our very\nown AB for example (that was only in ’89). Wim Mertens is\nnow immensely popular in Spain and Italy.At the end of last\nyear\, in leading monthly The Wire\, there was a 6 page\nspecial on Wim Mertens in connection with a concert of his\non English soil. In the article\, they commended Mertens’\nsinging as “a passionate counter-tenor voice in the same\nvocal ballpark as Sigur Rós that connects very emotionally\nwith large audiences.”.    Wim Mertens plays ‘Struggle\nFor Pleasure‘ will be performed by a string quartet\,\nsaxophone/clarinet\, harp\, piano\, chant and contains\nfollowing compositions: 'Tourtour'\, 'Struggle\nFor Pleasure'\, 'Salernes'\, 'Close\nCover'\, 'Gentleman of Leisure'\,\n'Inergys'\, 'Circular Breathing'\, '4\nMains'\, 'Multiple 12'\, 'At home' and\n'Not at home'.    ◄◄ REWIND: Q&AAfterwards\,\nnow true to ◄◄ REWIND tradition\, Wim Mertens will be\ninterrogated in the AB Club by De Standaard journalist\nWouter Van Driessche and Jan Delvaux (author of ’97\npublication and reference work on Belgian pop music ‘Big\nIn Belgium. Het Verhaal Van De Belgische Pop’). Delvaux is\ncurrently working on a sequel (working title: ‘Belpop. De\neerste vijftig jaar. 1960-2010’) that is to be released at\nthe end of the year.\n\nhttps://www.abconcerts.be/en/agenda/wim-mertens/a105J000001we0lQAA
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SEQUENCE:0
DTSTAMP:20260811T171036Z
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