Struggle For Pleasure has 30 years!
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Precisely 30 years after the release of Struggle for pleasure from the composer Wim Mertens he releases a double CD with, alongside the original titles, a selection of 10 previously unreleased tracks from his archives. This material date from the early 80’s and has been complemented with 2 new recordings of the tracks Salernes and Gentleman of leisure. Mertens composed those pieces principally in Salernes (south of France) at the beginning of the 80’s.
On 15th and 16th March those titles will be entirely performed by the Wim Mertens Ensemble – 8 musicians – for the concerts series Rewind at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. www.abconcerts.be
2011 has been a special year for Wim Mertens.
For the ‘Festival van Vlaanderen’ in Gent Mertens composed ‘A Starry Wisdom’ and performed two sold out concerts in the Cathedral St Baafs (solo piano) and with his Ensemble in the Capitol.
For the opening of the new building for the laboratory Education and Research 4, on 8th December 2011, Wim Mertens presented with a large ensemble the title ‘Telles Quelles’, a work that Mertens – himself a former student of the university KU Leuven – has composed especially for this occasion. He has been inspired by, among others, the scientific literature by the researchers Bart Destrooper, Peter Carmeliet and Catherine Verfaillie. The Spanish video artist Cristóbal Vila has been asked to create a 3D video for the track.
Wim Mertens has also been commissioned to write and present live a composition by the city of Guimarães, Portugal, Capital of Culture 2012. He will perform on March 7th with the Fundação Orquestra Estúdio directed by Rui Massena at the CC Vila Flor in Guimarães for the world premiere of ‘When Tool met Wood’. http://www.ccvf.pt/