New Age Word Instrumental Review:Scott August-Beyond Summer

Release Date: March 18, 2019

Label: Cedar Mesa Music

Website

Add caption

Beyond Summer is the seventh proper album for Scott August. This is my introduction album, so it is always exciting to discover another artist. That is the status quo for any true music lover.

For the astute listener, there is so much more to the music than popping a CD in your stereo and hitting play. For my ears, it is all-encompassing. I take the artwork of the album cover into account, the track titles, and then put that all together to see what the artist is trying to convey to the audience.

We are seeking what is Beyond Summer through Scott’s Native American flute. On the cover, you see the reflection of a butte (taken from the French word meaning small hill) in pools of water. If you flip over the CD there is the butte in all its colorful magnificence. The label name of the recording has mesa in it, which is a reference to another landform. So, what does one get from all this? What I glean from all the visuals, words and mainly, music, is that everything is interconnected. In the eleven tracks offered on the recording, all of the colors and journeys of the music take you to these landscapes. The beauty of what Arizona can offer us will come to the mind quickly, especially if you have been there, which I have.

The Native American flute has a mystical alluring sound to it.  What Scott does is take his baseline of flute playing an add many layers of other instruments to complete each track. He is responsible for all the instrumentation on Beyond Summer including composing and producing. This is one man show, which makes it all that more remarkable after listening. Guitars, piano, synths, everything that intermingles with the flute, is finalized within each track. It takes a true artist to paint the right picture, and Scott uses broad brush strokes on his canvas.

One track seamlessly blends into the next as the journey continues. The only disappointment you will have is that it comes to an end. I could appreciate all the work and exceptional talent that went into Beyond Summer and how it brought to light so many things about the beauty of mother earth and how we are one with her and need to respect that partnership. There are many things that are going on now that are disturbing the ecosystems and how its delicate balancing is getting out of sync. 

Music such as this is healing and makes you more aware of what you are truly feeling and how your surroundings are so precious. The ultimate healer is music and mankind should listen to these musicians delivering a powerful message without uttering a word.

Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck

February 24, 2019

Founder of:

TheFinalonVinyl

MuzikMan Productions

MuzikMan Reviews

Write A Music Review

Prog Rock Music Talk

New Age Music Reviews

Rate The Tracks

Review Provided By New Age Music Reviews

    Tracks:     
    01. Spirit of the Canyon
    02. Empty Highways
    03. High Desert Dreams
    04. Beyond Summer
    05. A Day with You
    06. Buffalo Dance
    07. Chaco Mystery
    08. Valley of Gold
    09. Journey to Kashgar
    10. Temple at Dawn
    11. Shadow of Time