Scott Cossu is one of New Age music's brightest instrumental stars, and yet his music is uncomfortable with that arbitrary designation. Combining his love and knowledge of folk, jazz, and classical composition, Cossu's album EMERALD PATHWAY pleasant music and so much more. On this eclectic and moving recording, Cossu forgoes the world fusion sounds of his popular WHEN SPIRITS FLY album, to create a paean to his home in the American Northwest. Using the mountains, mossy forests, and rivers that surround him as musical inspiration, Cossu pares down his palette to the basics: piano, guitar, flute, and percussion. Coming from a composer who had previously employed dozens of musicians to create his music, this would seem prohibitively limiting. But Cossu focuses on his experience as a classical composer, and relies on form and structure to express himself instead of polyphony and ethnic stylings. Tracks like "Snowy Mountain Creek" are performed as chamber pieces that feature all the tonal coloring and gathering intensity of traditional classical music. Other tracks like "Sweet Nostalgia" feature some jazz impressionism that adds whimsy. In all, Cossu's experiment in simplicity has repaid him in musical abundance.