Wim Mertens

On 10 September 2026 at The Clapham Grand in London, Belgian composer and pianist Wim Mertens steps on stage in an intimate duo to unveil As Water Is to Fish. At the piano, he is joined by a musician on soprano saxophone and clarinet, a pairing that opens space for his clear themes and shifting harmonies. Expect the pulse of his minimalist writing, the play of repetition and variation, and that melodic tension that quietly reshapes the room.

Mertens has built a singular body of work since the early 1980s, moving between solo pieces, chamber formations and large-scale cycles. Many listeners met him through film, notably the score for Peter Greenaway’s The Belly of an Architect, and through pieces that have travelled widely: Struggle for Pleasure, Often a Bird, Iris, Close Cover. In concert, these motifs take on new contours, moving from crystalline patterns to warmer timbres when the winds enter. This set centers on the new album while keeping a line open to earlier repertoire, sketched with the precision and clarity that mark his live playing.