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Raymond Scott documentary
By Simon James | July 8, 2008
“More than a think factory - a dream center where the excitement of tomorrow is made available today.“ —Raymond Scott.
The electronic work of Raymond Scott has had and continues to have a huge influence on my own electronic compositions. Established in 1946 his Manhattan Research company was setup to design and manufacture electronic music devices and systems for the creation of electronic music and musique concrete. His instruments had names like Circle Generator, Bass Line Generator, Bandito the Bongo Artist and the Electronium. The latter even got Motowns Berry Gordy’s interest. Impressed by the infinite possibilities of the Electronium, Berry hired Raymond Scott in 1971 to serve as director of Motown’s electronic music and research department in LA.
It is his work from the 50’s and 60’s that is really groundbreaking. As well as providing electronic instruments for others he also setup his own studio creating sound and music for radio and TV commercials. Strange electronic soundscapes for companies and products such as Bendix, Sprite, Vim, Vicks and General Motors gently introduced an audience to a future where bleeps, whooshes, backwards noises and washes of sound would become commonplace.
There is so much to write about Scott but not the space to do it justice here. I strongly suggest searching out the Manhattan Research collection which was released on Basta records a few years back. You can find out more here and at his official site. There is also a documentary in the making which could be pretty good though I’m keen to see how much is archive footage and how much is talking heads. I’m hoping it won’t be as bad as the Moog documentary a few years back. There is a preview available here.