De Jager (The Hunter)

Tijdsbeeld by Eva De Roovere, illustrated by Arnold Hovart

Twenty years after the release of ‘De Jager’, Eva De Roovere returns in 2026 to the album that decisively shaped her solo career. When it first appeared, De Jager was warmly received for its openness and distinctiveness. It was a record that did not demand attention but gradually settled in. The songs stood out for their clear melodies, their poetic simplicity, and a voice that did not conceal vulnerability but found strength within it. Over time the album grew into an anchor point, continuing to resonate with new listeners as well as with those who had carried it from the beginning.

On the occasion of the anniversary edition of De Jager, Eva De Roovere also chooses another way of looking back. Not a nostalgic retrospective, but a Tijdsbeeld. What does ‘De Jager’ mean today, after a quarter century of living and listening? That question forms the starting point of a collaboration with visual artist and illustrator Arnold Hovart, who for years has worked at the intersection of narrative and imagination. He draws not to explain, but to open space. His lines are clear and precise, his images carry both lightness and gravity. Throughout his work runs a distinct attention to what unfolds between people, to what becomes visible precisely when it remains unspoken.

For this project Arnold Hovart creates twelve individual drawings, one for each song on ‘De Jager’. They are not illustrations in the classical sense. The drawings do not literally follow the music, but move alongside it. They listen. They respond. Each image forms an autonomous interpretation with references to the song lyrics, a visual echo that leaves as much open as it reveals. Word and image meet without hierarchy. The songs remain themselves; the drawings do not add explanation but invite the viewer to look along. In this way a cycle emerges in which time becomes tangible. What is heard now also finds a line. What is familiar is questioned anew. This Tijdsbeeld shows how ‘De Jager’ can continue to live beyond its original moment.

The collaboration between Eva De Roovere and Arnold Hovart is above all a dialogue between music and image, between then and now, between listening and looking. Here ‘De Jager’ appears not as a finished story, but as a landscape one can enter again, with space for what each of us may recognise within it.