MoMu x Willy Vanderperre Takeover: Wim Mertens

For the musical nocturnes, Willy Vanderperre has invited artists of stature, including the men of Amenra and piano virtuoso Wim Mertens. They will be giving concerts in the entrance hall. In the weekends following their performances, their music will be heard in the exhibition galleries.

Wim Mertens started his career in 1980 after working as a musicologist and radio producer. His first release For Amusement Only consists only of the sound of pinball machines. This album was followed by At Home-Not at Home (1981), Vergessen (1982), Struggle for Pleasure (1983) and Maximizing the Audience (1984).

Over the past 40 years Mertens developed his musical output into a carefully crafted personal language, writing for different ensembles. He has also composed for vocals and for symphonic orchestra. Today Mertens has more than 70 albums to his name, the music which he regularly performs live throughout Europe, North and Central America, Japan, Thailand and Russia.

In 2019, he released the album Inescapable, a limited-edition box set that provides an overview of four decades of composition (1980-2020). This release was followed by The Gaze of the West (2020), Heroides (2022), Voice of the Living (2023) and Ranges of Robustness (2024).

In his new opus, Ranges of Robustness, Mertens explores the numerous forms and degrees of the notion of 'robustness’. In only nine compositions all-or at least many-variants are presented “in the way that our time requires”, in the words of the composer. The contemporary symphonic approach is in line with today's robust challenges. The first single Polytics was released on 3 May, 2024.