Merging the Audience: Wim Mertens - Apatride

In 2001 Wim Mertens released the 'Aren Lezen' (4 box, 13 CD) set, the last one of his 'experimental oeuvre' started in 1991 with the 'Alle Dinghe' (3 box, 7 CD) set, followed in 1994 by the 'Gave van Niets' (4 box, 10 CD) set and in 1999 by the 'Keere Werom' (3 box, 7 CD) set.

The tracks included in those 13 CDs were different samples of the same song, proving of being able to be merged one with each other. This was specially true in the 2nd and 3rd box of the set, where you can hear the separate instrument parts of 12 different songs (soprano saxophone, violin, harp, piano & percussion). After 15 hours of work I managed to merge the combining tracks, guessing when each instrument started playing.

In 2003 I finally listened to the live version of this song due to the release of the album 'Years without History Vol.4: Not yet, no longer' (a wind ensemble live recording) and recently, in 2009, I could listen to the studio recording of this piece due to the release of the album 'The world tout court'.

This song is the result of combining the 7th track of the 5th CD (harp) and the 7th track of the 8th CD (percussion, both included in the 2nd box of the 'Aren Lezen' set called 'Aren Lezen'), the 7th track of the 9th CD (violin + soprano saxophone), the 4th track of the 10th CD (euphonium) and the 9th track of the 11th CD (piano, all included in the 3rd box of the 'Aren Lezen' set called 'Kaosmos'). The euphonium track was specially challenging to merge because it starts at... 8:52 !!!!