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LAB-005 · R05

*Waar de Haan Waakt*: twelve songs, then thirteen

The album was widened from Diederik's story to the people Maerten meets: humour, travel, love, betrayal, courage, loss, exclusion and coming home. Its title is Waar de Haan Waakt ("Where the Rooster Keeps Watch"), with the working subtitle Liederen van liefde, strijd en ander ongemak ("Songs of love, war and other inconveniences").

The running order follows emotion, not chronology:

  1. It opens collectively with Hef de Banier.
  2. It turns playful with Drie Munten voor de Veerman and Het Proces van Willem de Dorstige.
  3. Love and betrayal follow in Het Meisje bij de Ravenbrug and Voor Dertig Stukken Zilver.
  4. Freedom comes back with Morgen Rijd Ik Weer.
  5. Comradeship and fear come in Als Ik Val and Als de Hoorns Gaan.
  6. Loss comes in Laat Zijn Stoel Staan.
  7. Exclusion comes in Ze Noemden Haar een Heks.
  8. Power returns in Reinout de Valse, where villagers resist the toll before Diederik arrives.
  9. Belonging comes in Er Brandt Nog Licht.
  10. It closes with the epilogue Veritate Vigilans.

The arc moves from "raise the banner" to "raise each other up". Each song has to stand alone, because a listener who finds one track on a playlist should not need ten others to follow it. The world should add depth, not set an entrance exam.

What went wrong. Er Brandt Nog Licht had been written, but it fell out of the tracklist during a restructure, leaving twelve tracks, without anyone deciding to cut it. The gap was only noticed while the video concepts were being developed. Without the song, the confrontation with Reinout led almost straight into the philosophical epilogue, and a human step was missing. With it back, the ending runs conflict → somewhere to return to → reflection, and the album has thirteen tracks.

The lesson goes beyond this album. When a project is built across many separate AI conversations, drafts and documents, things can disappear without anyone deciding to remove them. A chat with an AI assistant is a useful workspace, but it cannot be the only record. Tracklists, lyrics, production data and release decisions need one central, versioned register.

Possible focus tracks: Hef de Banier (sells the world), Ze Noemden Haar een Heks (a story), Als de Hoorns Gaan (energy). There is no album release date yet.