Wim Mertens

Venice, 1984. Teatro Carlo Goldoni. Jan Fabre's legendary play The Power of Theatrical Madness premieres - and with it, a defining document of Pop Minimalism. This primarily European phenomenon - rooted in first-generation British minimalists Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman - took the tunefulness of Reich and Glass and gave it a pop base rather than jazz/African or western classical foundations. Mertens wrote the first full-length study of the genre, American Minimal Music (1983), before becoming a prolific composer himself - much like Nyman, who also started with a definitive book on experimental music before his successful career as composer (both have scored Peter Greenaway films). Circles, occupying the entire first side, is a wonderful additive piece with Dirk Descheemaeker slowly building melodic fragments through overdubbed clarinets and sax. The solo piano Lir will break your heart. But the title track is the pinnacle of Pop Minimalism: a charging piano pulse with chattering percussion, operatic female vocals and aching violin/sax lines expertly weaving in and out. Included in Alan Licht's all-time Minimal Top Ten. A Crépuscule classic, finally back on heavyweight vinyl.