by Ted MillsOne can imagine how a composer like Wim Mertens could appear on the Windham Hill label and -- to some people's surprise -- in the late '80s he appeared twice. Whisper Me is a compilation of tracks from his other Crepuscle releases, a mini-overview of his style, and a way of hearing some tracks from the then-impossible-to-find Maximizing the Audience. Mertens has more depth to him than other pianists on the label, and a darkness creeps in at the edges of these works. Yet his romanticism sets him apart from contemporaries such as Michael Nyman and he's unafraid to aim for the heart rather than the brain. And another note: "The Fosse," looked at sideways, bears a surprising chord-progression resemblance to Cat Stevens' "Wild World."