Wim Merten He returned to Spain with the cycle ‘Les Arts és Altres Músiques’. The Belgian musician, whose compositions have even been played in the clubs of the 80s and 90s, will present a selection of his most iconic works, as well as his newest songs, especially when all the songs are given a new life with a musical ensemble. winds, piano and sound.
It had been 15 years since he had given a concert with trumpet, saxophone, trombone and cornet. Why? Why?
Because I never wanted my compositions to be played with a single instrument. In fact, when I started playing in Spain in 1986, I was playing wind instruments very often. I like these types of instruments because they are very close to the musician’s body, there is no separation between the musician and his instrument.
Woodwind instruments are very popular in many parts of Spain. Many musicians learn to play them in local bands from a very young age.
Yes, I know, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how the public will react to this very special atmosphere we want to create. It is very important for me that musicians are performers as well as musicians, and that the public connects with performance as well as music.
How much does your career need not to repeat itself, with albums in more than 60 different instruments and formats?
This is an interesting question. You cannot make new compositions, new songs, unless you maintain the sense of spontaneity that you cannot program or have whenever you want. When you find this spontaneous element of songs, you have to work, do the instrumentation, orchestration, arrangements… you didn’t expect.
Isn’t the question to be bored?
Especially today we need to offer something surprising, new that goes beyond the classical proposals and forms. For me, avoiding the ordinary is like a necessity. If you’re tired of the new stuff you’re doing, you need to stop and try a new strategy, take a new path, and surprise yourself, the musicians you work with, and then the public. When you dedicate yourself to making music, you must learn to live with the unexpected.
You studied musicology when you were younger. What did the musicologist Mertens add to the musician Mertens?
I first studied Political Science because when I was 18 I felt I needed to get away from the music I had learned since I was 10-12. This allowed me to broaden my vision of people and life as well as music. Two years later, I felt the need to continue my music studies again, and then musicology made me wonder what the relationship between the change in music and the change in society was, and I tried to apply this to my studies. It is very important for me as a musician to be in touch with where you come from and where you come from.
this music Should it be a reflection of his time?
This is my greed. I don’t want to detach my production from what’s around me. If I have the opportunity to work for another 20-30 years, my goal is for my music to continue to reflect the society I belong to and at the same time create new ways to travel with music.
And what role do masterpieces always have to play in this process? A hindrance or a launch pad for the development of music?
It is very important that these masterpieces are preserved and that young musicians contact and translate them at this time. In the West we have a tendency to preserve the canon, something that has a positive side but cannot compete with the creation of new paths. Both options must be together. Sometimes tradition takes up too much space. It can’t be a museum piece, but it can’t compete with new music either.
And the melody? His music has a very melodic character, but today, rhythm rather than melody seems to dominate in many of his compositions.
Generally true. The melody is closely related to what I call “believers”. To put emphasis on melody or harmony, you have to believe in something, something musical. I’m trying to get back to these elements a little bit, but I’m adjusting it for our period. We can’t write melodies like Mozart did, but Mozart couldn’t create melodies like we do now.
Two of your songs ‘Maximize the audience’ and ‘Fight for pleasure’ had unusual success in Valencia nightclubs in the ’80s and ’90s. Do you have an explanation for that?
At that time, music was salvaged from traditional venues such as auditoriums or concert halls. These two songs were pieces that started to circulate in very alternative and unexpected places for me. I also needed to create new audiences that went beyond the traditional. And I was very happy that the music came to Belgium before it came to Spain in 1984 or 85. Many see it as a negative to add elements of dance music to such compositions, but for me it was important that it helped bring my music to places where people dance happily.
What does a song need to reach an audience as wide as yours?
I can’t answer that. There is no formula. Only when a little time passes can you sense what makes a song popular. My music in general, in all its different aspects and in all the albums I’ve recorded, I can say it works together as something that represents its era.