Belgian, Antwerp-based sax player-clarinetist-multi-instrumentalist-compose Joachim Badenhorst is known as the leader of the jazz sextet Carate Urio Orchestra which blurs the boundaries between jazz and free improvised music with elements like post-rock, singer-songwriter, noise and ambient, and as a member of the chamber jazz trio Equilibrium (with Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug, and Norwegian vocalist-sax player Sissel Vera Pettersen), and of Pascal Niggenkemper Le 7ème Continent.
I’d Rather Stay at Home collects Badenhorst’s three soundtracks for films of fellow Belgian and Antwerp-based experimental visual artist-director Rinus Van de Velde – The Villagers (2019), La Ruta Natural (2022), and Life in a Day (2023), recorded between 2018-2023 and released by Badenhorst’s label, Klein. Badenhorst and Van de Velde maintain a long artistic collaboration. Van de Velde did the artwork for Badenhorst’s first solo album The Jungle He Told Me (Smeraldina-Rima, 2012), and for his recent singer-songwriter album Zero Years Kid ‘Geen grenzen’ (Klein, 2023), and for this album, and his extensive oeuvre included drawings, installations, and ceramics
It was natural that Badenhorst would compose the music for Van de Velde’s films, whose complex works play with the tension between reality and fiction and create an alternative, imaginary world in which documentation, fiction, reproduction, and reconstruction are inextricably linked. In his works, myths from literature, art, and film constantly invade the reality of his own artistic personality and practice, presenting personal stories that do not tell the truth but through impersonations, constructed lies, and appropriations, come closer to uncovering the truth about his own identity and artistry.
Badenhorst’s composed chamber and atmospheric soundscapes for clarinets, saxophones, voice, and electronics, beautifully mirroring Van de Velde’s cinematic vision. The 18 layered, concise soundscapes offer suggestive, intimate sonic interpretations of Van de Velde’s elusive and surreal, often abstract and dream-like images (translated into pieces with titles like «In the evening the fish are given fresh water», «A man crawls dripping out of a TV», or «A small balloon shows the direction») that test the different possibilities of contemporary art. These delicate soundscapes suggest an immersive listening experience seamlessly blending gently and organically between contemporary music, minimalism, ambient, and chamber jazz.
The album is accompanied by the Films book, published by Hannibal Books, which features stills from the three films and text by author Timon Karl Kaleyta. The book offers unique insights into the creative process behind the music and films.
Eyal Hareuveni
Joachim Badenhorst (clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, voice, vibraphone, keyboard, electronics)
