Scott August : Lost Canyons

West Hollywood, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Cedar Mesa Music) - Throughout the western United States, there still are remote, uninhabited wilderness areas of serenity and great beauty, especially forsaken canyons where native tribes once lived, some of them thousands of years ago. Musician Scott August, a multi-instrumentalist best-known for his artistry in playing Native American wood flutes, has crafted a recording, Lost Canyons, that captures the experience of spending a day surrounded by nature in one of these secluded locations. (...)

Lost Canyons is August's fourth CD, preceded by Distant Spirits (nominated for a Native American Music Award, NAMMY), Sacred Dreams (a NAMMY winner!), and New Fire (another NAMMY nominee and a winner of the prestigious Indian Summer Music Award). August also has released Ancient Light, a DVD of 450 stunning photographs he took while exploring the Southwest, with the soundtrack selected from the first three CDs plus one new piece. August also headlined the Zion Native American Flute Festival in 2006 and 2007, and the Central Coast Flute Festival in 2007.

Scott's interest in music began as a small child. He was born in Los Angeles and raised in Fullerton in Southern California. Scott's father played numerous instruments informally, Scott's grandfather was a professional classical violinist with a radio show in Los Angeles and concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, and Scott's great-grandfather led a folk band. One of Scott's earliest musical memories is a Stan Getz-Joao Gilberto bossa nova album.

At age seven, Scott began studying cello and playing in school orchestras. When he was nine he got a kalimba for Christmas which awakened his love for ethnic sounds. His senior year in high school he started to play piano and began practicing classical music at least six hours a day for the next few years. He played in a few bands, but primarily studied music which took him to the University of Southern California as a composition student where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree. As a child he grew up listening 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).

At USC, August spent most of his free time in the electronic-music lab where he learned to use synthesizers, sound sampling and processing, and music interfacing with 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 began making recordings using piano, synths, autoharp, kalimbas and guitar. At first he made cassettes and later pressed a vinyl album of this music to submit it to radio stations. It got airplay in Los Angeles on KCRW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' show and KXLU's 'Alien Air Music' program, and on the New York station WNYC. He met and spent time talking about music with Steve Roach. In addition, August's musical influences expanded to include Steve Tibbetts (an eclectic fusion guitarist), Jon Hassell (a trumpeter who merged electronics with world music sounds) 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 have included NASA, Lexus, Chevrolet, HBO, Nabisco and Minolta. One of many projects he has done for The Discovery Channel was the soundtrack for the film they showed repeatedly at an IMAX-style theater in the Olympic Village in Atlanta. (...)