Monday, July 30, 2012

Soft Verdict - Vergessen (les disques du crépuscule, 1982)


Soft Verdict was established by Flemish composer Wim Mertens in the early 1980's. The band performed Mertens' compositions for ensembles often consisting of both acoustic and electronic instruments. Though hard to categorize, his work bears the influence of American minimalists Steve Reich and Philip Glass and resembles that of his contemporaries Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars. The pieces on Vergessen are melodic and repetitious, some playing with the cyclic theme common in Reich's work. Vergessen is the German word for forgotten, an apropos title consistent with the pensive, reminiscent feeling of the songs. Enjoy.

3 comments:

  1. I would love to have this, tried to download it and it downloaded something called "geographies" by Hector Zazou

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My apologies. I updated the link. "Geographies" is worth having anyways.

      Delete
  2. i recently uploaded and shared "for amusement only" by mr mertens. in case you haven't heard this one, try it! anyway: thank you for this wonderful blog - it's the best blog i discovered in many months.

    ReplyDelete