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Phases of the Sun is the debut CD of Black Hat, formed in 2008. The songs are the culmination of two years of reckless creativity by singer/songwriters Frankie the K (Frank Koscielski) and Caroline Maun. Though the songs are keyboard-driven, Jef Reynolds (producer, sound engineer) provided intense bass and upright guitar performances. Veteran jazz drummer Jim Hart of Detroit brought a range of percussion and rhythmic accompaniment to the album. The fourteen tracks on this album cover a wide range of musical styles and genres. The result is a fusion of everything from pop, rock, roots, blues, jazz, and classical music. The variety reflects the singer/songwriter method of allowing the music to emerge from lyrics written by poet Caroline Maun. Black Hat is a live performance band available for a variety of entertainment occasions and venues.

The album itself can be enjoyed for its original and unique music, but there is also a unity to the arrangement of the whole and a multivalent narrative that emerges from close listening. The songs themselves tell a twisting tale of descent and rebirth without any easy resolution or sham peace. The first track, "The Game" is a funky rock song with a driving beat and insistent climbing bass line. It is a strong indictment of consumerist, superficial culture. It ties together the emptiness and hypocrisy of the self-satisfied. The soaring organ riffs are a cry to break out of this pattern of being, and the chorus, which ironically rewrites a common homily about ambition, reveals that the descent into hell begins here--in the workplace and among surface relationships.

"Blue Martini" puts the listener into a sultry bar where waves of love break on the rocks of the bottomless drinks. The setting is based on a neighborhood bar in Grosse Pointe, Michigan which features a night sky ceiling, twinkling with LED lights. Although the "mechanical sky" in "Blue Martini" is a little larger than its life counterpart, we all will recognize the couple seated there. They may be at an end or a beginning, but they are together, "so magically locked." The descending minor key pattern and forward bass make the atmosphere of the song a particular shade of blue--the backlit blue of blue vodka.The chorus repeats the recipe. This couple are denizens of a hell of inaction and emotional paralysis. They seek oblivion. An exotic turn, Indian cuisine becomes the occasion and metaphor for a erotic emotional sustenance in "Tandoori Love." This is as sweet and pure a song about lost love as you will find, and the playfulness of the tone belies that there may still be hope here. Light percussion effects lift the song up. It is an invitation to indulge one's appetites. Joyful, wistful, and jazzy chord patterns, the song follows a familiar II-V-I chord progression, but it still surprises us with its pop ebullience. "Tandoori Love" implores us to savor simple pleasures even as it is a solitary song about memory, longing, and isolation. Inspired by a cryptic throw of the coins, the I Ching offered up the potential future "Sky Over Water." Frankie the K alternates between a soulful probing of the theme in song and spoken word. Somewhere between chant and incantation, destiny itself is celebrated. The chord pattern in descending 4ths speaks to the relationship between dream and lived experience. This song expresses acceptance that compromises and difficult choices lie ahead. In a completely different direction, "I Felt Like You" plays with the solid pleasures of identification and empathy. This song reflects the energy of a new connection and unexpected odyssey. Lyrics express moving toward love from isolation. This song will make you feel connection and joy long sought for and welcomed. The harpsichord cadences capture the complexity and play of this emotional journey. They recall the experimentation and innocence of sixties pop. "Some Dreams" is one of several emotional climactic achievements of the album. At once capturing the longing and distance of one's dreams, they hover with an ethereal presence. Free form piano solos transcend the structures of conventional feeling. The song places the listener into the echoing aftermath of a dream unrealized.

"Why You Want To Do Me Like That?" -- this song a brainchild of Frankie the K -- is a cadence on the subject of betrayal, drawn in a light shade of the blues. Followed by another one by Frankie the K, "Don't Set Me Free" sizzles with the story of lovers whose romance pushes the boundaries of power. "I don't care if we both go to hell," croons Frankie, and in the very next song, that's where this couple is going, ready or not. "The Pact" describes a vow between a pair who have decided to homestead in the oldest of territories -- hell. Yes, you can believe what you hear as the choir they comprise chant their way down the slippery slopes of the inferno. Recalling Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, the instrumental chorus urges them forward, step by step.

"Where do we go from here?" the next song, "It Has Come To This," appropriately asks. Suffused with Latin percussion and featuring a duet by Frankie and Caroline, they begin their slow climb toward the positive. "The Road," a bluesy tune about accepting what is before you and taking things one step at a time, provides some solid footing. "We Will See" is pure pop about contingency, the difficulty of seeing into the future, and the stranger one sees in the mirror. "If I Knew Then" follows with a strong chorus of support for a long journey and seeing it through.

The crashing, classical music-induced "Repent" closes this journey in the only way it can, by explosive resolution of conflict. Turn it up! The organs are conversing with each other like Titans on the battlefield.