The Cycle by Mourning [A] BLKstar
Released by Don Giovanni Records on MAY 15, 2020
SINGLES
THE CYCLE
The Cycle was created in a 900 sq ft storefront on Lorain Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, where Mourning [A] BLKstar practiced for three years. The band met weekly in that space on late Wednesday nights that often stretched into the early morning. Together Mourning [A] BLKstar watched the flicker of the street lamps against damp streets, listened to the sounds a city makes in every season and watched a cast of characters from the windows--many of whom stopped to listen or dance along with the music.
The band wrote The Cycle together in that storefront; RA Washington brought in 12 song sketches with words that, up until that point, only LaToya Kent had seen, the rest of the band wrote their parts on the spot. It was an epic first practice that is at the heart of The Cycle. The songs came together so fast that Mourning [A] BLKstar performed many of them for the first time just two days later at a showcase for The Panza Foundation, a local arts advocacy nonprofit dedicated to the support of Northeastern Ohio Musicians.
The Cycle is Mourning [A] BLKstar’s testimony to the time and space in which it was collectively created. It is a humble addition to the long legacy of James Baldwin’s adage of the artist as witness. It is our song cycle in a time that just may need a song or two in support of and in love and power to the living.
credits
WRITTEN BY
RA Washington + LaToya Kent
+ Kyle Kidd
PRODUCED BY
RA Washington
ARRANGED BY
M[A]B
RECORDED & MIXED BY
Jah Nada at Guide To Kulchur
ALBUM ART BY
Odin Blak
M[A]B IS
Dante Foley
James Longs
Kyle Kidd
LaToya Kent
Pete Saudek
RA Washington
Theresa May
William Washington
TRACKLIST
SIDE A:
If I Can If I May
Sense of an Ending
Something JD Said
Deluze
SIDE B:
Mist Missed
Interlude - Where They At
The Wants
SIDE C:
Devil Get Behind Me
So Young So
Been Around
Hard Stars
SIDE D:
Be
Whom the Bell Tolls
The Box
Holds
“Before we rush back to the usual cycle of auteurist, individualist music made by lauded and pampered artist, we’d do well to listen deep to the communal act of love that is The Cycle.”