Raymond Scott – Soothing Sounds for Baby
Basta / 1997 (1963) / part 1 / part 2 / part 3
Raymond Scott – The Music Box
Raymond Scott – Tempo Block
Raymond Scott – The Playful Drummer
“Despite its title, Soothing Sounds for Baby isn’t just for infants. When it was recorded by composer / electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott, it was intended for babies — but history has endowed this deceptively simple work with a broader significance. Had Scott known that this elemental music’s appeal would continue as its target audience grew up, he might have entitled the series Sophisticated Sounds for Baby…
Released on three long-playing records in conjunction with the Gesell Institute of Child Development, Inc., Soothing Sounds… was intended to serve as an “aural toy” during the “feeding, teething, play, sleep and fretful periods” of infants in three distinct age groups. The original album notes stressed that a young child’s sense of hearing is better developed than many people realize.
Ironically, same qualities were embodied in a type of adult music that evolved in the 1970s and ’80s. Brian Eno’s 1975 album Discreet Music is often cited as the first deliberate attempt at “ambient music”. Eno stated, “Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. [It] must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.” His subsequent albums On Land, Music for Airports, Thinking Music, and Thursday Afternoon, along with Fripp’s solo Frippertronics and Soundscapes, defined a genre of music that could justifiably be termed Easy Listening for the avant-garde. (For a complete history of sonic sedatives, read Joseph Lanza’s Elevator Music, published by Quartet Books, UK.” Joachim Gurewitz
Posted in de-dans, download on June 29th, 2009 by de-dans | 6 Comments