1. Amorphous Membranes
2. Pulverized Light
3. Live Up To The Weight
4. Rot
5. Mineral Rhythm
6. Still, Not
7. How To Hold
8. Sea Lily
9. Once Was
10. Dissonant Sway Away
11. But, Still

lp/cd/dl, Klein Records, November 2025

pre-order here

Youran, meaning cradle in Japanese, reflects on the uncertainties of the present moment as we persist in the vibration of possibilities.

The project was conceived when Joachim Badenhorst composed music for a new ensemble, with musicians coming from different backgrounds collaborating in unusual settings.

Youran came together for a first concert of three hours in July 2023 at a former Margarine Factory in Rotterdam organized by the North Sea Round Town festival. The compositions were loosely interpereted by the group, making use of unique sonic qualities of the grease-infused industrial space.

The following summer, Youran played another three hour long concert for NSRT, in Laurenskerk, a medievel church in the center of Rotterdam. Musicians walked amongst the audience, engaging with the expansive cathedral like reverb, while the different pipe organs were played by the church’s organist Hayo Boerema.

Joachim went on to mold an album inspirited from these performances, blending the rich and eclectic instrumentation of horns, electronics, guitars, church organ, Japanese percussions and koto to create a sound distinct from the long form live happenings. Fusing new studio material with the church recordings, he would weave together shorter songs of melancholic worlds that exist somwhere between the known and the unknown. The final mix is a collaboration between Joachim who, after arduous editing, turned the material over to Roel Snellebrand for mixing, who then passed his mix on to Rutger Zuydervelt, who processed them into decomposed compositions and made the final mix.

At once celestrial and of a dark murkiness, the project grew out of sonic explorations with grand spaces, towards an attempt to carve and hold inward space for broken down emotions, anchored by radical corrosion.

Joachim Badenhorst: clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, voice
Alistair Payne: trumpet
Nabou Claerhout: trombone
Tsubasa Hori: Taiko, Bells, Koto
Simon Jermyn: electric guitar, electric bass
Rutger Zuydervelt: electronics
Hayo Boerema: church organ