Raymond Scott - Works for Orchestra 1935–1943 (Vol. 4) (2024) Hi Res

Composer, bandleader, and inventor Raymond Scott was among the unheralded pioneers of contemporary experimental music, a figure whose genius and influence have seeped almost subliminally into the mass cultural consciousness. As a visionary whose name is largely unknown but whose music is immediately recognizable, Scott's was a career stuffed with contradictions. Though his early work anticipated the breathless invention of bebop, his obsession with perfectionism and memorization was the very antithesis of jazz's improvisational ethos. His best-known compositions, especially the rousing "Powerhouse," remain at large thanks to their endless recycling as soundtracks for cartoons, but he never once wrote a note expressly for animated use (aside from commercial jingles). And although his later experiments with electronic music (particularly the three-volume Soothing Sounds for Baby series, issued in 1963) pioneered the ambient aesthetic, the ambient concept itself was not introduced until a decade after the release of his original recordings. After decades of obscurity, Scott's work was rediscovered during the 1990s, as interest in space age pop, exotica, and early electronic music resurged. 1992's Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights compilation reintroduced his Quintette recordings to the record-buying public, and 2000's posthumously issued Manhattan Research, Inc. became a favorite of left-field electronic music aficionados, as well as a frequent sample source for hip-hop producers, including J Dilla and El-P.