Scott Eggert

One of the most precious gifts we have in this great life we all share is music. That blessing is easily overlooked in the dominant culture on this land where the power of music is all too often distorted and disgraced for financial gain and ego puffery. Therein lies the paradox of the music itself. Particularly, what some believe is the real business of music.
Whereas artists will come and go, selling millions of records, accolades being poured upon them like shimmering waterfalls of gold, becoming idols for those who worship such things, the real musicians remain intact, pure, free from all the trappings of vainglory. They are the underground, hidden from view, obscured by the flashes of light capturing in transient form those artists who seldom really make any difference worth noting in this dream we all share called life. When one finds those kinds of artists, the smile upon their spirit is most pure.
What more people are realizing is that what really is popular music, is music of the people, not the music created by an oligopoly of money-changers. The Western Way of producing music goes all the way back to the days when symphonies were commissioned, all the way to the enslavement and theft of some of music’s most bright and shining creative forces these days. Not much has really changed, save for the fact that real music is still made by those two-leggeds who try to make this life better than when they found it, with their gift often going unnoticed by many, but truly loved by a few.
No, the music of the people is spiritual in nature, not empty, like money. And one simply has to ask, is there anything in this life what has any worth that has not been hidden? If someone has to search out the truth, is will serve them much better in life to actually have to find it rather than be told by some guru, some financier, some preacher, some teacher.
The truth of this, though small, is rather simple. The real teachers are the ones who point a way. In my life, many of those teachers have been musicians. You can easily tell the real musicians from the false ones. The real musicians are not in it for the money, they are in it for the music, for the healing power of music. They fully realize that music is not business. Business is business, and music is, well, quite obviously music.
A Cherokee elder once told me that we could live life without music, we could share ceremony without music, but the music makes it so much stronger. That is what I have looked for in my own life, music that makes me stronger. And Scott Eggert has the gift to do exactly that. The music plays him. It flows through him with healing power, infusing him with a gift that does not often strike most folks struck by the lightning of music. Scott has been on a lifelong quest to learn all that music can offer.
He has been performing publicly since he was a child. He attended the Berklee College of Music, which says a great deal about his discipline and his desire to educate himself about the fundamentals of music. He has toured all over the world, studying everything from the piano, to Xoomei, the art of Mongolian throat singing. He is an accomplished drummer, studying the drum from cultures found in the Americas to Africa. He has even studied with Babatunde Olatunji.
Be it a wind instrument, the drum, a stringed instrument or his voice, there does not seem to be any instrument that Scott cannot play. And if he cannot play it outright, he meets the challenge like a child full of wonder and respect. Music is his life, and the study of it consumes him, filling him with a joyful noise that can start the fire in anyone’s weak heart.
And that is what he has set about trying to use his music for now. He has begun to use his music to heal directly, doing private sessions for people through offices in New Jersey. Sure, you can catch him in his band, The Kevin Brennan Band, on weekends to lift your spirit, but you can also go and hear him one on one to heal your spirit. And that is what music is really all about.
I am just happy that I could at least help and point the way.







- Laurin Wollan

“Akróasis” To Make Debut at Myhelan CD Release Party

WASHINGTON TWP. (Morris) - Scott Eggert, a healing sound healer, will realize a dream with the debut of his new CD, Akróasis, at Myhelan Cultural Arts Center in Long Valley on Saturday night April 5 at 8 p.m.

Eggert will perform music for meditation from his CD, which features overtone singing and instruments from India, Tibet and Native America. He will be accompanied by Marco Dolce, known for his singing bowl music, and members of the Yvwiya Gunahita Singers, a Native American music ensemble devoted to intertribal music.

The CD can also be considered World Music—a unique synthesis of musical sounds from various corners of the globe. The individual pieces are intended as journeys or prayers, and if listened to with an open mind and heart they will transport the listener into altered states of consciousness, deeper levels of being.

The title Akróasis is Greek for “hearing.”

“I chose this title for many reasons,” said Eggert. “It is also the name of a book by Hans Kayser, a German physicist who specialized in the study of the harmonic series, a facet of sound/music that plays a central part in this CD. This book introduced me to how the understanding of the harmonic series leads to greater understanding of the universe, in microcosm and macrocosm. The choice of a Greek word is also a nod to Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher/mathematician/musician who introduced the study of harmonics to the western world.”

Also, the title’s meaning—“hearing”—is really what this CD is all about, Eggert continued. “Hearing on all levels, not just perception of sound by the ears, but hearing/listening with the entire being—body, mind, and spirit.”

The CD is all vocal music, but there are no actual words sung at any time; every piece is a chanting of vowel sounds or made up of “vocables”—vocal syllables which have no concrete meaning per se but nonetheless invoke meaning and energy in a pre-verbal fashion. This is so the listener may focus entirely on what is within the sounds themselves rather than any pretty poetry. Musical sound has infinite layers of depth that the average listener never hears because he/she is never listening intently enough to perceive such depths.

Of the six pieces on the CD, three are sung in a vocal style known in the West by many names—overtone singing, throat-singing, harmonic singing or harmonic chanting. The technique originates from Asia, most notably in Mongolia, Tuva, and Tibet. In Mongolia it is known as xöömei. It is the art of singing two or more notes simultaneously, using both the vibrations of the vocal cords and the vibrations of air within the throat and mouth—the harmonics. The resulting sound is extremely powerful and impacts upon the listener in a unique and amazing way.

All the music on this CD is performed on acoustic instruments from various countries—India, Africa, and Native America. All these instruments are chosen for their harmonic richness and their origins in the sacred music of these different cultures.

Eggert attended Carnegie-Mellon and the Berkeley College of Music, studied composition with Robert Davie, vocal techniques with Sylvia Nakkach of the group Vox Mundi and even learned elements of African drumming from the legendary Babatunde Olantunji. These learned skills, along with a host of others, has enabled him to bring his healing sound programs to an array of individuals representing a variety of backgrounds.

Teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers, business people, college students and others are now frequently using Eggert’s healing sound techniques as a way to better cope with their own lives, and in many cases, to better help others cope with their lives.

For further information about Eggert’s performance or for directions to Myhelan Cultural Arts Center, please phone 908-876-5959. To find out more about Eggert, visit his website, www.scotteggert.com, or by phone, 908-295-4678.


- Dan Hirschberg