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Equinox

by Black Oak

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Immediate album download.
    The Equinox album on CD features 11 tracks and comes packaged in beautiful full color artwork with a lyric booklet

    Price includes shipping within the EU
    If you're ordering from outside the EU please contact us via blackoakmail@gmail.com

    Includes unlimited streaming of Equinox via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €17 EUR or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited pressing of 500 copies

    Price includes shipping within the EU
    Vinyl orders from outside of the EU ? >> Please contact us via blackoakmail@gmail.com

    The Equinox vinyl LP features 11 tracks and comes packaged in beautiful full color artwork
    You also get an immediate download in the format of your choice (wav, mp3, etc).

    Includes unlimited streaming of Equinox via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 30 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €27 EUR or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €10 EUR  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited pressing of 500 copies

    Includes unlimited streaming of Equinox via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €27 EUR or more 

     

1.
In your eyes I see Something light appear In this sight I find a pride From a want to need In a silence it speaks In its wonted tongue To me When the night is all I see I let the colors covet me In your eyes I see Something light appear In this sight I find delight From this moment on I can carry these fears And to know them is their end When the night is all I see I let the colors covet me When the young are old inside I imbue their dreams with fire And when it’s suddenly here The heft i know is there And when it’s suddenly here You keep me on my toes And when it’s suddenly here I see the gold for gold And when it’s suddenly here I see the dust for dust And when it’s suddenly here Exactly what it is And when it’s suddenly here And that’s what ties us in And when it’s suddenly here Dawn rises before us
2.
There’s still so much that I can learn That I won’t understand But even so, all I know will be forgotten soon I’ll rise and fall again Aimless and undulant With blood that’s thicker than a bond And my bones resolved to dust There’s still a mountain to conquer Because it’s there And when I climb it I’ll know just how steep it was I’ll rise and fall again Aimless and undulant With blood that’s thicker than a bond And my bones resolved to dust There’s still a lot I’ll become On a road somewhere Until the curtain call before the final act I’ll rise and fall again Aimless and undulant With blood that’s thicker than a bond And my bones resolved to dust So, let the wind disperse The traces of my steps I’ll rise and fall again There’s still a lot that I won’t understand I’ll rise and fall again There’s still a mountain because it’s there I’ll rise and fall again There’s still a lot I’ll become somewhere
3.
The Grain 03:29
Homewards, the auburn sky Golden this summer light Honed by the night bird’s cry To the earth When you’re walking alone On the side of a road And the waves in the grain Make you feel unbound Homewards, the auburn sky Golden this summer light Honed by the night bird’s cry To the earth When you wake up alone The expanse of the sky Makes the impossible Seem a great deal less
4.
Gallop 03:25
I held the line You left me there It wasn’t a crime To start of a beginner What was the plan when you called it off ? Was it the grind, fighting all the time ? ooooh oooh Some day we will know how it went Some day we’ll tell of a new beginning It was a crying shame when you did Catch me off guard Before I realized what I had done I know how no one can be free But, by now all these hours of dreaming Are worn out Time removes the tolls that I’ve paid As I go on, a rock in the stream Of the gallop of time
5.
Howled into the wind An unfurling of words stowed away Time lapses into the dusk As I sit, alone Now I know how you must've felt I'll make my bed underground where I can smell the dirt And I'll dream of leaves and the writhing of worms in the earth Now I know how to roam the dark Without senses Though I'm none the wiser I feel so much lighter Alive and well Knowing I am who I am
6.
Equinox 04:02
What have we done here ? Is it all a lie ? Are you still wondering how the yarn is spun ? Caught in a mire of words We can never unfold How will we wake up to the horizon’s fire ? Now that we both know that the line can be crossed Are you still wondering how the yarn is spun ? With the devil in the foreground across from me Stealing pennies from the fountain before they sink So, I will cross this sea With my doubts and uncertainties So now that we both know that the line can be crossed Are you still wondering how the yarn is spun ? Would you follow me into the billowing sea on a ship of fools ? Drifting ever so slowly across the equinox And I can’t be there When you follow me in So I’ll cross this sea With my doubts and uncertainties With the devil in the foreground across from me Stealing pennies from the fountain before they sink Could I leave it entirely up to these eyes in front of me ? Is it all in my mind, or all in the signs in front of me? So I’ll cross this sea With my doubts and uncertainties With the devil in the foreground across from me Stealing pennies from the fountain before they sink Would you follow me into the billowing sea on a ship of fools ? Drifting ever so slowly towards an equinox
7.
Melee 03:44
I can now see how it grows Somewhere out there, out of a fear I can now see how it’s sown Sung by men down and in need How the worn are won Blinded by their desperation To find a way out Of a bitter life’s vocation When the summer ends Will we have spent our innocence ? Some say in the hour that men are born, the child is lost Could we try to agree that it’s not in our nature to be unloved ? Even when in the end that we harden in sadness for those we’ve lost All the sorrow will not stand to last or stay our feet Oh no, we cannot be With this clamor all around here Oh no we cannot leave When this ends in a melee
8.
Thaw 03:56
The day that you disappeared I knew you would reappear There was nothing much but rustling leaves But come spring, I could hear you call: "Here I am" The way that you reappeared As the sun fell upon the fields I knew the place in which I had lived Had meant no wandering around Here I am
9.
Rove 03:40
Home is behind the world ahead I can't seem to settle in In the dawn I wait for the sun with stars and bread With my eyes closed I float like a swan The light it is gold In this early hour I could carry on So, I will stroll through the snow As I'm heading to the dawn I wait for the sun with stars and bread Not all those who wander are lost My feet are strong Among the pines I feel alive And the woodland so quiet speaks to me In frost covered lines drifting by As I'm heading to the dawn While I'm up high with mist tendrils caressing my eyes I grow taller with each cold breath drawn The tragedies below seem to fade before the dawn Before the dawn I wait for the sun with stars and bread Not all those who wander are lost My feet are strong
10.
Whirl 02:45
I followed the shapes on the sea with my eyes The sea and the air started reaching around It was almost as if they were planning to merge It comes close to me now It’s a sight to behold Feet sliding down From the hill to the edge of the shore The wind has a wave twisting up to the sky And it’s inching its way to the mouth of the bay Then it finally rides up the edge of the shore It comes close to me now It’s a sight to behold Its force throws me down From the hill to the edge of the shore It all whirls, front to back Debris flies left and right On the waterspouts it trails It has me running ‘round Right back up the mound But as I turn I see everything’s pristine
11.
Hunker 03:40
I’ve wandered in and out of time, a ghost. And, I’ve come to realize: all goes How does love remain, when you are gone ? Would it be sustained, if I carried the pain ? Though, I know now I can’t see how You are by me And, I know now I can see how We are bodies (On the cusp of life and death) I’ve wandered in and out of sight of the gold. And, I’ve come to realize nothing at all What in life remains the task at hand ? If we glimmer but return to sand ? Though, I know now I can’t see how You are by me And, I know now. I can see how We are bodies On the cusp of life and death

about

For the past year and a half Geert van der Velde (The Black Atlantic) and Thijs Kuijken (I am Oak) worked hard on writing and recording a collaborative album for their newly formed band Black Oak. The result of their combined songwriting skills is the beautifully balanced album 'Equinox' which will be released on van der Velde's own label/production company Bellwether.

Equinox is a modern day acoustic pop album grafted on a folk base. It's a classic album in the sense that it harkens back to the sound of Neil Young’s 'Harvest' or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s 'Déjà vu' as much as it fits in with modern day folk acts such as Fleet Foxes and Mount Eerie. Music rooted and embedded in both the English and American folk tradition. The songs on Equinox relish in the pastoral without relinquishing themselves to it.

The balance of night and day that the album title alludes is hidden in the details. There are no grandiose statements here. This is earthly music, suited as much for a late night stroll under a starlit sky as a daytime hike up the mountain. The songs are at once intuitive and deceptively clever. And the more you pay attention to the details, the more you want to follow them around and disappear into the fog of finesse that surrounds it.

Kuijken and van der Velde’s timbres and songwriting ideas complement each other so seemlessly that you forget this is the debut album by a new band. Of course, both songwriters have made their mark with their respective main bands I am Oak (Kuijken) and The Black Atlantic (van der Velde).  But it’s a rare thing when two individually talented songwriters come together and manage to blend their styles so fruitfully that the collaboration stands on it’s own. And, that’s just what Black Oak - the band name even being a synthesis of the aforementioned main band names - has managed to do on Equinox.

Equinox sounds warm and inviting as much as it is melancholic and dreamlike. It paints a musical landscape of sunlit canopies and shadowy valleys and leaves you with nightly echoes in an earthly trance. All the while shifting and shimmering in dynamic and pace. Its soaring guitar melodies, skyward vocal harmonies and meandering plucked acoustic guitars conjure up a world of harmony and balance that is almost meditative. As if the listener by chance stumbled into a secret city garden and is given a 40 minute respite of the rush of the day.

So too, the jointly written lyrics constantly shift between feelings of wonder for the natural world and the human condition (“The Grain”, “Gallop”, “Rove”), magical realism (“Whirl”), perseverance (“Because It’s There”) pensive, personal ruminations on life and death  (“When The Night is All I See”, “A Dirge” “Hunker”) and even a firm but gentle statement against violence and intolerance (“Melee”).

The gorgeously warm and vintage production value added by producer Matthijs Herder reminds us at once of Phil Spector's work with The Beach Boys and Phil Ek's hand in Fleet Foxes' emergence as one of today's most popular folk acts. But most importantly Equinox reminds us that in this day and highly advanced technical age all it takes to make a great album is a couple of guys who just sit down with their guitars to write good songs.

credits

released May 13, 2016

Music and lyrics by Geert van der Velde and Thijs Kuijken
Arranged by Geert van der Velde, Thijs Kuijken and Mischa Porte
Recorded and mixed by Matthijs Herder

Performed by:

Geert van der Velde – guitars and vocals
Thijs Kuijken – guitars and vocals
Mischa Porte – drums, percussion
Matthijs Herder – bass guitar, synths
Esther Postma – backing vocals, mellotron, pocket piano synth

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Black Oak Netherlands

Black Oak is a band from the Netherlands formed by Geert van der Velde (The Black Atlantic) and Thijs Kuijken (I am Oak).

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