LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

• 180 gram audiophile vinyl
• Gatefold sleeve
• Wrapped in deluxe PVC sleeve

Maximizing The Audience is the first solo release of Belgian multi-instrumentalist and composer Wim Mertens, after he dropped the group name Soft Verdict. The album was composed for the play The Power of Theatrical Madness by Jan Fabre and premiered in Venice on June 11, 1984.

Unlike the pieces on earlier Soft Verdict records on which tracks were typically between two and nine minutes in length, all the musical pieces on Maximizing The Audience are close to 20 minutes long, aside from the 4 and a half minute "The Fosse" and the 12-minute title track.

The music's function as a theatrical background makes these five pieces some of the most traditionally minimalist music of Mertens' career. This is one of the most essential records of Wim Mertens, and highly recommended for fans of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Ludovico Einaudi and Michael Nyman.


SIDE A
1. CIRCLES
SIDE B
1. LIR
SIDE C
1. MAXIMIZING THE AUDIENCE
2. THE FOSSE
SIDE D
1. WHISPER ME