The legendary Belgian poet Jotie T'Hooft developed a heroin addiction at a very early age, around 16 or 17. At 17 or 18, this addiction led to him spending more than a year in a juvenile prison/ detention center: Rijksheropvoedingsgesticht Ruiselede (the Ruiselede State Reformatory).
The poem ‘In het Gedicht’ (In the Poem) is about this period, during which he was deeply unhappy. Change the letters in the title from ‘d’ to ‘st’ and you get a completely different title: ‘In het Gesticht’ (In the Asylum). It is remarkable that the images in this clip were filmed in this ‘asylum’. Revealing unique images of the very white corridors of the chapel Jotie T'Hooft had to walk to attend church services on Sundays. With brilliant drawings by Jenny Collot d'Escury, great vocals by Jan Eilander
A track from the album: Jan Eilander sings Jotie T'Hooft.
Production & music: Rainer Hensel
When Jaap Cohen, the author of the biography about filmmaker/writer Theo van Gogh, was driving along the highway beside Lake De Kaag, he listened to the music from this videoclip. He pulled off the highway, stopped, bewildered, and listened to the lyrics:
Wij roeiden op zwart water, omringt door riet van goud
Het was zo koud het was zo stil, alsof de wind ons had bevroren
We rowed on black water, surrounded by golden reeds
It was so cold, it was so quiet, as if the wind had frozen us
Jaap was overwhelmed that the villainous critic Theo van Gogh had such a poetic, gentle side. This is the video clip for the music, composed for this tranquil poem. Filmed on the Kaag, on ‘black water’ surrounded by ‘golden reeds’. Beautifully sung by the “Tom Waits of the lowlands”: Jos Bloemkolk.
From the CD: Gloedvolle Momenten (Glowing Moments).
Production & music: Rainer Hensel
The filmmaker/ journalist/ social critic Theo van Gogh experienced his wildest years between the ages of 18 and 20. He drank heavily, wrote short stories and poems like a wild man, slept very little, and used a lot of drugs. His local bar was Café Bellefleur in Amsterdam, a rough place filled with the strangest characters. Jaap Cohen, the biographer, described the regulars at this bar as an extremely curious collection of human oddities. Many of these characters played the strangest supporting roles in his first film, Luger.
This video clip is about this café. Theo wrote the lyrics about a rapidly aging woman who regularly met her ex-husband in this café. It perfectly captures the “down and out” atmosphere of Theo van Gogh's life during that period. Brilliantly sung by the Tom Waits of the Lower Countries: Jos Bloemkolk.
From the CD: Gloedvolle Momenten (Glowing Moments).
Production & music: Rainer Hensel
This video is about a mysterious French figure known as Prince Noir (French for “Black Prince”). This anonymous motorcyclist became an urban legend for his record-breaking rides around the Boulevard Périphérique, the ring road that circles Paris. The Boulevard Périphérique is a notoriously busy highway, stretching about 35 kilometres (22 miles) around Paris, with constant traffic jams and strict speed limits. Yet, Prince Noir managed to complete a full lap in astonishingly short times — reportedly around 11 minutes, requiring an average speed exceeding 190 km/h (118 mph). Despite numerous attempts, police have never managed to identify or catch him, adding to his legend. Regardless of his true identity, Prince Noir has come to represent a kind of modern outlaw hero.
Still, for many, the story of Prince Noir embodies the timeless allure of speed, mystery, and rebellion — the spirit of a lone rider challenging the limits of man and machine on the dark, circular roads of Paris.
To highlight this absurd speed-performance this bossa-nova song was composed, and this video-clip was produced. But also, the Prince Noir seems to have a beautiful daughter, and lovely wife. The lyrics of the song are written from the perspective of the daughter, the extreme ambivalence, her admiration and the strong anger around the extreme risk-taking of her father. Outstandingly well sung by Leah Uijterlinde, a brilliant vocalist and one of Rainer Hensel’s favorite singers when it comes to these kinds of cinematic atmospheres
Op een dag zal ik weg zijn en
wat dan? ... en het puin dat ik achterlaat is
niet langer lachwekkend
‘Het was waar’ zult gij zeggen ‘hij speelde
met woorden als geen ander maar wat
heeft dat te betekenen.’ Zo bleek
zal ik zijn. In u.
One day I will be gone, and
then what? And the mess I will leave behind will
no longer be preposterous.
‘It was true,’ you will say, "he played
with words like no other, but what
does that matter?" That is how pale
I will be. In you.
These are the bitter words of the Belgium, legendary poet, 1.5 years before his suicide. Words in which he anticipates the fast fading of memories of his work and his life. Consequently, by writing these words Jotie T’Hooft villainously anticipates on the depressing phenomenon that the memories of his work, and his life will soon fade into pale remembrance. This is the videoclip to this song, based on this poem. With footage of the last house, he lived in, leaving one morning to commit suicide. And moreover, from the graveyard, his final resting place.
A track from the album: Jan Eilander sings Jotie T'Hooft.
Production & music: Rainer Hensel
The key theme of this video is the philosophy of Henri Frédéric Amiel, the 19th-century Swiss philosopher and poet. Amiel reflected on the paradox of intimacy — the idea that the closer we grow to someone, the more vulnerable we become to pain, disappointment, and rejection. For Amiel, love was both a source of profound joy and deep suffering because it exposes the fragile core of the self.
Amiel argued that human longing for perfect unity in love is doomed to collide with reality. No person can completely fulfil another’s emotional needs, and this gap between desire and reality often leads to sorrow. Thus, the pain of love arises from the tension between our yearning for total connection and the inevitable limitations of human relationships.
In essence, Amiel’s philosophy views love as a beautiful but tragic condition — an experience that awakens our deepest potential for joy yet simultaneously exposes our most profound vulnerability.
This song was composed, and the lyrics were written by Rainer Hensel for the feature movie ‘Op Slot’ (Locked), the scenario written by Thijs Römer, based on a novel of the Dutch novelist Bernlef. Unfortunately, although very promising, this movie was never really finished, what a shame. So only this video has survived as a symbol for this initiative by Thijs Römer, that should be highly appreciated.
The American poet Charles Bukowski states: A brilliant poem should groove like the rattling rhythm of a typewriter.
When Rainer Hensel read the following lines of poetry by Jotie T'Hooft:
"De lucht is zwanger van mijn zaad, dat doelloos weggeschoten geen sporen laatDan geel-gerande vlekken op het laken, en de snel verdwijnende vochtaanslag van mijn eigen hijgen, op uitzichtloos vensterglas."
Except yellow-edged stains on the sheet, and the quickly disappearing moisture from my own panting, on windowpanes without a view."
After having read these lines Rainer decided to set Jotie T'Hooft's poems to music. Rainer called his soul mate, singer/screenwriter Jan Eilander, and this is the first track from this collaboration. Electronic drums are used to accentuate the groove, while bandoneon, piano, and double bass provide a musical interpretation of these uniquely vicious lyrics about loneliness and melancholy. Vocals: Jan Eilander, drawings: Jenny Collot dÉscury,
From the album: Jan Eilander zingt Jotie T’Hooft
production & music: Rainer Hensel