The Way of the Sevenfold Secret

Description

The Way of the Sevenfold Secret is an ambient album by the British born, American based poet and singer/songwriter Steve Scott, independently released on HSAL/Semionaut Music in November 2023. The album was recorded and mixed by Manuel Luz (with Scott Reams mastering at Mr. Cat in Sacramento, California). All pieces written and performed by Steve Scott.

I was introduced to Steve Scott’s spoken word poetry when a youth group friend lent me her cassette copy of 1992’s The Butterfly Effect, which would become deeply influential and even a source of comfort during my tumultuous senior year. After a series of albums in the ’90s, including 1994’s We Dreamed That We Were Strangers and 1998’s Crossing the Boundaries, Scott took an extended hiatus before returning in 2017 with Cross My Heat.

His latest album, 2023’s The Way of the Sevenfold Secret, takes its title from a 1926 booklet written by British missionary Lilias Trotter to explain Christianity to Sufi mystics. The album’s four tracks feature Scott’s own form of mystical imagery intoned over haunting ambient soundscapes and field recordings. However, «Sixty-Five Roses (for Dylan Mortimer)» is inspired by something more personal: the death of a friend.

In his lightly accented voice, Scott speaks of a star-filled river flowing across the land, of all tangled things being loosened and all broken things remade. It’s a lovely poem, one that – despite the evenness of Scott’s voice – is filled with an emotional yearning for reunion and restoration. [Jason Morehead, Opus, March 5, 2024]

FFO: Eric Lunde, Allen Ginsberg, Gil Scott-Heron

The last time we were able to deliver a Steve Scott album, it was a collection of stories and feelings crafted over a decade’s (or more) worth of time. Perhaps it was the global pandemic’s penchant for driving focus, or maybe it was self-directed study of various religious texts, but something stirred our favorite British expat toward a cycle based on a 1926 booklet by Lilias Trotter. “Secret” begins with a pair of set pieces that read like memories as much as they do poems. The remainder of the album works through seven movements (plus an epilogue) that mirror Trotter’s writing.

Each poem is accompanied by subtly haunted tones that reinforce the presence of something more than Scott’s words. There are extended moments beyond the words that seem to invite reflection and internalization – as if the sounds that swirl around Scott mimic the role of Virgil leading Dante through the Inferno, Purgatory, and ultimately, Paradise.

Some albums resonate because the vibe they create invites an immediate repeated listen – the party doesn’t have to stop. The resonance of “The Way Of The Sevenfold Secret” is paradoxical in that the listener may find the silence replacing the final track to be the perfect headspace to make sense of the meditation through which they were just ushered.

Track 3 is based on the 1926 booklet by Lilias Trotter entitled “The Way Of The Sevenfold Secret.”

“(Epilogue) The Bells” first appeared in Stride (UK) in 2022.

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-way-of-the-sevenfold-secret/1712555255)

CD tracklist:

01. Rainbows at Midnight – 3:25
02. Sixty-Five Roses (for Dylan Mortimer) – 3:04
03. The Light – 2:30
04. The Door – 3:20
05. The Bread – 3:55
06. The (Beautiful) Shepherd – 3:50
07. The Companion (the Way, the Truth, & the Life) – 5:13
08. The Vine – 3:14
09. The Life – 5:51
10. (Epilogue) The Bells – 3:05

Note: Released as a Limited Edition CD pressed in 200 copies. (The digital version of this record, available through Bandcamp, streams tracks 3 – 9 as a single track called “The Way Of The Sevenfold Secret.”) Available at Bandcamp: https://stevescottpoet.bandcamp.com/album/hsal-63-the-way-of-the-sevenfold-secret

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