Soothing Sounds For Baby: Electronic Music By Raymond Scott, Vol. 1, 1 To 6 Months

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Alongside apple-cheeked watercolor paintings of infants, the original cover design for the Soothing Sounds series of records bore the charming inscription, "An Infant's Friend in Sound." Composer Harry Warnow was already legendary (as "Raymond Scott") for his whimsical electronic and big-band novelty musics. With this 1962-63 series, Scott turned his astonishing array of invented and modified keyboards and recording techniques toward pure electronic music with an infant-friendly spin. Intended as "aural toys" for the nursery, Soothing Sounds' deceptively simple "tic-tocs" and unthreatening seesaw melodies play on the calming properties of repetition--much like music boxes, Fisher-Price's mobiles, and the comforting "Again!" video mentality of the Teletubbies. Despite endorsement from the Gesell Institute of Child Development, the records sold poorly. But they had a curious afterlife, prefiguring such "adult" descendents as ambient music ("invented" by Brian Eno in 1975) and the mechanical pop-tronic textures of Kraftwerk and Gary Numan. --Gil Gershman

Soothing Sounds For Baby: Electronic Music By Raymond Scott, Vol. 1, 1 To 6 Months, Music, Raymond Scott, Children's, Childrens, Electronic, Lullabies, New Age / Meditation, Novelty, Obscuro, Pop

Average customer rating:

Not so great as lullabyes but

my baby loves it (no joking!)

Great for baby, hard on mom and pop

Birth of Electronik

The worldýs first 'ambient' synthesizer record

Soothing Sounds For Baby: Electronic Music By Raymond Scott, Vol. 1, 1 To 6 Months

Manufacturer: Basta Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Electronic | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music | Computer
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | New Age | Styles | Music
Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music
Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General | Children's Music | Styles | Music
Lullabies | Children's Music | Styles | Music
Novelty Music | Comedic Music | Comedy | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
Electronica | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music
General | New Age | Indie Music | Stores | Music
New Age | Imports | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B000001YCG
Release Date: 1997-12-30

Lullaby
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Amazon.com

Alongside apple-cheeked watercolor paintings of infants, the original cover design for the Soothing Sounds series of records bore the charming inscription, "An Infant's Friend in Sound." Composer Harry Warnow was already legendary (as "Raymond Scott") for his whimsical electronic and big-band novelty musics. With this 1962-63 series, Scott turned his astonishing array of invented and modified keyboards and recording techniques toward pure electronic music with an infant-friendly spin. Intended as "aural toys" for the nursery, Soothing Sounds' deceptively simple "tic-tocs" and unthreatening seesaw melodies play on the calming properties of repetition--much like music boxes, Fisher-Price's mobiles, and the comforting "Again!" video mentality of the Teletubbies. Despite endorsement from the Gesell Institute of Child Development, the records sold poorly. But they had a curious afterlife, prefiguring such "adult" descendents as ambient music ("invented" by Brian Eno in 1975) and the mechanical pop-tronic textures of Kraftwerk and Gary Numan. --Gil Gershman

Customer Reviews:

Not so great as lullabyes but.......2006-10-29

These have got to be the best RINGTONES on the planet. With the right conversion tools and a little bit of editing, you'll have people thinking your telephone is receiving calls from the future!

my baby loves it (no joking!).......2001-11-05

I bought this album for my six week old baby girl, hoping to find a Kraftwerk for infants. And while i have't been disappointed in the least i am actually quite surprised that she likes it as much as she does. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that my girlfriend listened to Computerwelt incessently back when that little tyke was still swimming around in the womb. Still though, some of these songs seem anything but soothing to me. One song in particular sounds like it has a alarm clock blaring continuously throughout its ten minute running time. But what did my baby do but sleep soundly through it. You may object and say that a baby that age, when asleep, would slumber through anything. But i have put this on in the middle of screaming fits and it calms her right down. We love it! Raymond Scott makes me proud to be a parent! I just can't wait now until she is old enough to appreciate Bruce Haack.

Great for baby, hard on mom and pop.......2001-08-09

I gave this CD to some new parents. They reported that on a long car trip, whenever their two-month-old son got fractious, this CD quieted him down every time. But they are starting to hate it. It has a jangly, grating undertone and a monotonous melody that gets old fast. So 5 stars for meeting its promise, 3 stars for musical merit -- 4 on average.

Birth of Electronik.......2001-07-16

I had the random chance of hearing the first two tracks of this ingenuous set one late night while listening to my school's radio station. Kind of intrigued by the history of the creator (who also created the first Moog-type keyboard for his daughter who wanted to be able to play piano without lessons), I HAD to hear the tracks that would be played from this album. Well, this album isn't just for babies....the tracks repeat simple melodies arranged in a loop of sorts with little change throught the track. Now, this may seem monotonous, but it isn't much different than what a lot of Baroque music does....this isn't Baroque, by any means, but the effect is the same.....peace achieved through soothing simplicity....and you can't get enough. This album is on my "Must Buy" list...not only for my love of electronic music, but also as it is a cornerstone to today's musical stylings of the world's best producers of electronic music.

The worldýs first 'ambient' synthesizer record.......2000-08-13

Here's something to annoy your infant with. If you let your infant listen to this he's likely to think he's on another planet. Not that he knows what this planet is all about . Your job is to confuse him even more; make it hard for him to learn how to cope with the snot-nose Disney brats he's likely to meet in nursery school. This will make him a rebel of sorts in the future and unfit for the traditional type of what is called a `job.' This will be the basis of all his future happiness. Think of it as a sort of vaccination against all the bad music he's likely to hear in the future. All us grown infants who could use a bit of infant wonder back in our heads also very much dig this music. It's great stuff. In fact, I prefer this to the two ENO discs I have which tend to make things a little too lethargic. This puts you in a relaxed but demented zone, not too far from the Twilight Zone. It sounds like a PONG gone surreally melodic. This is what you put on in the background when you're ready to read `War and Peace.'

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