Sadly, the promotional materials for New Age music can feel very similar, referring as they do to ‘shimmering’ melodies or ‘ethereal’ playing. Radiant Sky came to me with just such descriptors, and I felt gloomy at the thought of having to listen to (yet another) ‘ambient dreamscape.’
Fortunately, good music will redeem any marketing.
Every note, each of which is spare and elegant, is perfectly placed and supremely evocative. “New Horizons” for example, brought me right to a space of watching the sun rise above a red rock canyon. “River of Stars” brought me to a place of stillness within the heart of the Milky Way.
The phrasing is perfect, and not simplistic; the arrangements complicated . . . but only with each successive listen did their complexity reveal themselves.
Highly recommended.
~review by Lisa Mc Sherry
Artist: Scott August
Cedar Mesa Music, 2010
CD 59 mins, $14.99
