Since his early 1980s connections with the independent label Les Disques Du Crépuscule and film maker Peter Greenaway, Belgian composer Win Mertens has built considerable audiences across Europe for his popular minimalism. In The Wire 321, Clive Bell met him in Brussels to discuss his hidden talents as a bell ringer and countertenor, and to unlock the secrets of his maze-like conceptual opus Qua, his 37 album boxset released by Usura/EMI Music Belgium.

Wim Mertens
"Eine Kugelrunde Null"
from Der Heisse Brei
(Usura)

Wim Mertens
"Struggle For Pleasure"
from Struggle For Pleasure
(Usura)

Wim Mertens
"Its Maschinewesen"
from The World Tout Court
(Usura)

Wim Mertens
"Inergys"
from Vergessen
(Usura/Crépuscule)

Wim Mertens
"Kronkelen De Armen"
from Qua (CD1)
(Usura/EMI Music Belgium)