Scott August Returns With Fifth Album Of Modern And American Indian Sounds

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Award-winning-musician Scott August - a multi-instrumentalist acclaimed for both his Native American wood-flute playing and his textured recordings - has created a new album, Radiant Sky, inspired by the stargazing of ancient cultures. The music is celestial, serene, atmospheric, meditative and mystical. "Looking at the night sky is something that links modern man with all the generations of people who came before, " states August. "The sun, the moon and the constellations are a big part of history, mythology, religion, philosophy and science."

August - who has won a Native American Music Award, a ZMR Lifestyle Music Award and an Indian Summer Music Award - composes, performs and produces all of his music. He not only performs on numerous different indigenous flutes, he also plays piano, guitars, electronic-keyboards and a wide variety of ethnic world-music percussion which gives his music a "tribal-techno" or "ethnic-fusion" sound.

He utilizes both the common "fipple-style" native wood flutes (similar to a recorder) as well as the more rare and difficult-to-play Anasazi rim-blown flutes (he is one of only a small handful of musicians to master this tricky instrument). On this recording August also incorporates kalimba (African thumb piano), udu (West African clay-pot drum), South American panpipes, tabla (a double-drum from India), oud (Mid-Eastern fretless lute), kenong and saron (Indonesian gamelan kettle gongs), charango (tiny South American guitar from the Andes Mountains) and huehuetl (an Aztec drum).

"This is probably my most contemplative album, " explains August. "There is a little less flute-playing and a bit more of a space-music sound, more ethereal dreamscapes." The music is ideal for relaxation, meditation, massage-therapy, spa treatments, yoga workouts and alternative healing.

August has four previous CDs (Distant Spirits, Sacred Dreams, New Fire and Lost Canyons) and a DVD (Ancient Light features August's music in conjunction with his own Southwest photography). His products can be purchased at many retail music and book stores as well as lifestyle specialty shops throughout North America. His music is also available at numerous online stores such as CDbaby.com and amazon.com, digital download locations including iTunes and Rhapsody, and at his record company's website (cedarmesa.com).

"The concept of the Radiant Sky album began with me enjoying the night sky, and feeling connected that way to ancient cultures, " August says. "I have always particularly loved both dawn and twilight when the sky is especially radiant with a magical glow, and that led to the compositions 'Calling the Sun' and 'A Pale Radiance.' I read a book about native culture that said the Yuman tribes of the Gila River area in Arizona witnessed a major meteor shower in the early 1800s and from then on they referred to events by how many years had passed 'Since the Stars Fell.' I liked that idea and I found the phrase very poetic, so that became another musical piece. I also took a trip to Machu Picchu in Peru where the Incas have always believed every star represents a living being, place or event on Earth, and they call the Milky Way 'The River of Stars' which inspired more of my music."

The CD cover is time-lapse photography with the camera aimed at the North Star, the one celestial body that remains in a relatively-fixed position to us, with the other stars shown drawing arcs in the sky because of the earth's rotation.

The arrangements on the CD range from the solo flute of "Since the Stars Fell" to the catchy, upbeat and melodic production of "Santa Fe" ("it reminds me of walking around that city and seeing the plaza, the exotic shops and people from all over the world"). "Journey of Solace" features "a dialogue between flute and textured guitar, and is about a transformative trip that brings comfort and healing." The tune "Rising from the Plateau" musically captures "the moon and stars ascending over the Southwest landscape." The album ends with "Searching Beyond" featuring the deep F-sharp Anasazi flute Scott had specially made for him ("there are both places and music left to explore because life's journey is far from over").

August's music has received extensive airplay, sales and acclaim worldwide. Lost Canyons was Top 5 (it debuted at #4) and New Fire went Top 10 in airplay on the international Zone Music Reporter radio charts. His music has been featured on the widely-syndicated radio shows "Echoes" and "Hearts of Space, " and receives airplay on the major digital networks Music Choice, Sirius XM and DirecTV. He tours actively and has headlined the Zion Native American Flute Festival (twice), the Yosemite Flute and Art Festival, the Potomac Native American Flute Festival and the International Native American Flute Association Convention. Scott also has been featured at many other major festivals including two of the most important ones for Native flute enthusiasts - Musical Echoes in Florida and Flute Quest in Washington State.

Scott was born in Los Angeles and his interest in music began early. At age seven he began studying cello and playing in school orchestras. When he was nine he got a kalimba which awakened his love for non-Western ethnic sounds. Later he began studying piano. He played in a few bands, but primarily studied music. When he was young, he listened to both classical music and popular music (such as The Beatles), but as he got older he explored progressive rock (Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze).

He went to the University of Southern California as a composition student and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree. At USC, August spent most of his free time in the electronic-music lab where he learned to use synthesizers, samplers, sound processors and computers. His musical taste moved to cutting-edge ambient and atmospheric artists such as Brian Eno, Harold Budd and Steve Roach, "and their music became the roots of my inspiration." In college Scott also began making recordings, and this early music got airplay on radio stations in Los Angeles and New York City. August's musical influences soon expanded to include Steve Tibbetts, Jon Hassell, Cocteau Twins and Peter Gabriel.

Brian Eno listened to some of August's early recordings, told him how visual the music was, and suggested Scott consider scoring. So August submitted music to an ad agency and soon became an in-demand composer for films, videos, commercials and TV shows. His clients included NASA, Lexus, Chevrolet, HBO, Nabisco, Minolta and The Discovery Channel.

August first began listening to Native American flute music while visiting pueblos in New Mexico. He fell in love with the scenery and culture of the Southwest, bought his first flute, and immediately started recording flute music. In 2004 he began researching Anasazi flutes. "The ones I play are a re-creation of several flutes that were dug up in Arizona in the late 1920s, and historians believe these types of flutes were played by the Anasazi Indians 750 to more than 1300 years ago. These flutes have a unique construction and are played differently than the more-modern Native American flutes." Not only has August become one of the premier Anasazi flute players in the world, he has written a book on how to play the difficult instrument (Kokopelli's Flute: The Complete Guide to the Anasazi Flute). He also teaches week-long courses on the Anasazi flute at the Zion Flute School.

“I love listening to atmospheric, ambient, dreamy, soundscape, textured music, so I decided to feature more of that sound on Radiant Sky, ” states August. “Although it has always been part of my recordings, this CD is a more direct acknowledgement of my admiration for artists like Steve Roach and Brian Eno. This music also is very introspective for me so I hope it takes listeners on their own internal journey of transformation.”

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