Scott Long - Reaching Calm (2003)

Scott Long was born in 1971 and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. In that city known for its unique culture and musical diversity, the musically inclined found it hard not to want to someday perform in the place where so many great musicians gathered. Whether performed in the local clubs or on the street corners and at any time of day or night, music was a way of life, the backbone of a culture. If nothing else, growing up in that environment inspired him to learn to play the piano at a young age. His ability, which came so natural, sparked his interest in the creation of sound and composition. There began the journey.

Scott began writing and performing every chance that he could and everyone around him knew that music was where his passion lay. Never being satisfied to just create without expanding, his interest furthered to include electronic instruments and experimental music. In his early teens an independent record label published his songs and from that experience on the pursuit was never ending. Scott learned to play a variety of instruments, learned to mix and engineer and most of all learned to follow the instinctual current that always flows within.

For years following his initial release, he became involved in studio work, recording, producing and performing as a hired musician. By the age of 24 he began to want once again to focus on his own music. Two years later he released a CD that featured his singing and songwriting ability. At this time he also began to play the club scene as a solo artist blending a mixture of pop, dance, and ambient, vocal and instrumental music. As each performance progressed he began to realize his growing interest in writing instrumental compositions. As he began to investigate this style of music and its ability to transcend all languages and cultural boundaries, his own songwriting began to take on a different characteristic, one that would remain until this day. In 2002 Scott released a CD containing a selection of four of his instrumental compositions as a promotion to radio stations, which received great feedback and airplay. Within weeks "Leaving The Familiar" was climbing! up the National New Age Charts.

The following months proved to be a time of living up to the expectations of a soul that longed to live what the music was calling out for. A new experience and a true "Leaving of the Familiar" so to speak. He decided it was time to make a change that would prove to be a wonderful and spiritually expanding experience, so he left the place that he had called home for all of his existence and moved over a thousand miles away to begin a new journey. He chose the New Jersey/ New York area for many reasons, some personal, some professional, but all in the pursuit of learning more about himself, his strengths and weaknesses, and to really push his ability to continue to grow spiritually, musically, and mentally. Of this change Scott has said, "All in all it has proven to be the right choice. Every decision and experience that I make and have, in so many ways creates the music that I compose and will continue to do so until I am no longer of this flesh. My main goal is! to create music that in some way can reach beneath the surface, cradle the soul in a tide of sound that washes over each person in a way that each individual that listens needs it to."

And so it does. Scott's music has been described by some as "soul-expanding, uplifting, and yet haunting in so many subtle ways." It takes you on a journey inward, for some to unfamiliar territory and for others to that place where the soul can take time out to breathe.

Tracklist:

01. Leaving The Familiar (6:06)
02. What The Years Have Left Behind (6:08)
03. Memories Of Comfort (4:17)
04. Becoming The Hunted (4:22)
05. Angel Tongue (4:45)
06. The Soul Lets Go (4:34)
07. The Existence Of Love (7:11)
08. I Drift Away (3:35)
09. The Dream Of Us Flying (5:32)