catching up {I}

in an effort to catch up with releases, there’s the third album in the years without history series

the series started out with moins de m‚àö√ßtre, assez de rythme (live in paris 1992), continued with in the absence of hindrance (live in gdansk 1998), and now there’s the third, cave musicam (live in brugge 1998). the albums combine to a nice overview of mertens’ work on live recordings.

live recordings for minimalist music (or the likes) always strike me as kind of odd. they often sound as clean as studio versions, with the only difference being the sometimes included applause. there is one huge benefit though, over say e.g. ‘best of’ cds, in that these live versions are often slightly different, more mature versions of the orginal work. and that is very true for this cycle.

whether you’re just getting to know mertens or already own a few albums, i’d highly recommend these albums to add to your collection. (if you don’t want to buy them all, my preferred order is three – one – two.)

is anyone else curious about the 13 album box that’s about to be released by the end of the month?