Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.
What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;
round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-9

Mixed and Mastered by Derek Allen
Recorded at First Baptist Church of Owasso and Trinity Episcopal Church of Tulsa with iPhone 6 and 12 in the summer of 2020

Photography by Dakota Harrington
Model - Roy Lee

Dakota Harrington - Piano
Casey Cantwell - Pipe Organ

Special thanks to First Baptist Owasso and Trinity Episcopal Church for letting us record in your beautiful spaces and Roy Lee and Casey Cantwell for making this amazing experience happen.

Church Nøise (There is Nothing New Under the Sun)

Farhad's Landing (Where Tulips Sprout) is a score inspired by the photography of Brittany Rose Hardcastle. The focus of the piece was to bring out the beauty of the flowers while also exploring the mystery of what lies beneath them.
 
In the language of flowers tulips symbolize “perfect love” - in Persian and Turkish folklore the flower represented the love between Farhad and Shirin. Shirin died tragically and Farhad threw himself from a cliff in desperation and heartache, and red tulips sprouted where his blood covered the ground

Photography by Brittany Rose Hardcastle (Insta: @Clovenmoon)

Mixed, mastered and performed by The Blackstar Experience

Equipment used: Micorfreak, Ultranova, guitar, Strymon iridium, BOSS DS-2, Ableton Live, Granulator II,

Farhad's Landing (Where Tulips Sprout)

Ominous drones flow with Sonic Artifacts with Dark atmospheric ambience crawling beneath the heavy drones. Recommended to listen to while walking alone on a dark night.

Credits:
K - Percussion, Synths, Sequencing, Sampling, and Programming

The Blakstar Experience - Dead Letters

Dark atmospheric drones beneath a melancholic piano medley while cymbals swell, drone, and resonate for the death of a dead texan.
 
K - Cymbow, Percussion, Synths, Sequencing, Sampling, and Programming

Feat:
Kyle Steenveld - Piano

The Blakstar Experience - Dead Texan

As the percussion signals the coming storm. Horns blast in the distance while sonic artifacts live in the darkness amongst layers of sound.

Credits: Percussion, Synths, Sequencing, Sampling, and Programming

The Blakstar Experience - Pine

K - Synths, Sequencing, Sampling, and Programming

The Blakstar Experience - Dark Church

Hearts burn like stars and present scars like moons 
They shine as bright as 10,000 suns
But how is it these suns die like a breath to a candle flame?
How is it these moons bare so many scars?

K - Synths, Guitar, Sequencing, Programming

The Blakstar Experience - New Nights Begin (Lexi's Gramophone)

Purchase at: https://theblakstarexperience.bandcamp.com/album/kodiak-island

Sweden is a drone heavy composition that came about as an experiment in texture made from torpid electronics and processing the sounds of miscellaneous objects and field recordings. 

Sweden was made in March of 2016.

Dakota Harrington - Synths, Sampling, Programming, Sequencing
Dawn Tuesday - Singing Bowl, Bowl Mallet

Photography by Nick De Leon

Mixed by Dakota Harrington and Dawn Tuesday
Mastered by Shawn Sanders

Additional Credits:

Ashkan Akbar Abdolrashidi - Vocals

Mastered at Blue Halo Studios

Kodiak Island

Sweden

Purchase at: https://theblakstarexperience.bandcamp.com/album/kodiak-island

Black Dawn is a minimalist composition comprised of monolithic sub bass, ambient textures, and sharp, noise influenced synths. An experiment in timing, space, and placement.

Dakota Harrington - Synths, Tubular Bells, Sampling, Sequencing
Dawn Tuesday - Synths, Sequencing, Programming

Photography by Nick De Leon

Mixed by Dakota Harrington
Mastered by Shawn Sanders

Black Dawn

Est. 2014, The Blackstar Experience is an experimental music collective that initially started as a Dark Ambient solo act. It has evolved into an alloy of doom electronics, noise rock, experimental jazz, drone metal and even contemporary classical. With a revolving door of collaborators, the sole focus has grown to expand their boundaries further via reflection and collaboration.

The Blackstar Experience (official)

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