Raymond Scott is, of course, the genius composer who wrote all the amazing tunes that Carl Stalling adapted for the Warner Brothers cartoons we all grew up to such as ‘Loony Tunes’ and ‘Merrie Melodies’. Scott incorporated elements of Jazz, Swing, pop music and avant-garde modern music into his compositions using a highly personal and unusual form of notation and editing. To the exasperation of his musicians, Scott would record all the band sessions on lacquer discs and later, using a cut and paste technique, edit blocks of music together into complex and almost unplayable compositions.
He was also a brilliant engineer whose homebrew, pre-digital sampling and sequencing techniques were 60 years ahead of their time. An Absolute pioneer when it comes to syncing audio to video. Check out one of his instruments called the Electronium.
In 1972, Scott became the head of electronic music research and development for Motown Records.
Read more about Raymond Scott, his commercial electronic studio Manhattan Research and his handmade instruments and devices here.
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