Raymond Scott - Three Willow Park: Electronic Music from Inner Space 1961–1971 (2017)

Three Willow Park: Electronic Music from Inner Space, 1961 1971, contains 61 previously unissued gems by Raymond Scott (1908-1994). Widely recognized for his jazz-age melodies heard in classic Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons, Scott was also an electronic music pioneer and instrument inventor. In the 1960s, Scott produced beat-oriented proto-techno in advance of the 1970s explosion of electronic music and rhythms on the pop charts. Many of the tracks on Three Willow Park feature hypnotic tempos and melodies played by Scott's Electronium a unique device which composed and performed music using programmed intelligence. In 1970, it caught the attention of Motown impresario Berry Gordy, who ordered one, intending to use it as an 'idea generator.' The advanced 'Motown version' of the Electronium is heard on record for the first time on Three Willow Park.

Willow Park Center was an industrial rental complex of offices and storage space in a Long Island suburb. In 1965, Scott set up his electronic music lab at #3 Willow Park and defied zoning laws by living in the repurposed warehouse. Ever the music scientist, he devoted his time to researching, experimenting, testing, and measuring; he twirled knobs, flipped switches, and took notes. He installed equipment and machines, and used them to build new equipment and machines. This makeshift compound remained Scott's workshop and bedroom until 1971, when he decamped for L.A. to work for Gordy.

Besides the Electronium, sounds heard on Three Willow Park were generated by the Circle Machine; Clavivox; Bass-Line Generator; Bandito the Bongo Artist (a drum machine); tone, melody, rhythm and sound effects generators (some controlled, others random); oscillators, sequencers, and modulators; tape montages; and acoustic instruments and voices. The recordings on Three Willow Park, like those on previous Scott electronica releases Manhattan Research Inc. and Soothing Sounds for Baby, define and establish Scott's legacy in electronic music history.