King’s Place in London is hosting Cartoons and Weirdness – A Tribute to Raymond Scott, on Tuesday, October 14th.

The first night of Sound Source celebrates the work and influence of Raymond Scott, a lost genius of the 20th Century.

Bandleader, inventor and experimentalist – Scott’s career was diverse to say the least. He’s best known for inspiring the soundtracks for cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and The Simpsons, but in his time Scott also developed the first musical sequencer and even spent time as the head of electronic research and development at Motown Records.

This spirit of adventure permeates the night, from the Stu Brown Sextet’s reinterpretation of Scott’s early work to Falco Subbuteo’s experimental electronica (featuring spnm shortlisted composer, Valerie Pearson).

The Sound Source regulars no.w.here bring complementary films and The Open Source, curated by Music Orbit provides a unique platform for the best emerging composers and artists.

MOUSE HEAVEN
Kenneth Anger, USA, 2005, 10 min, sound
Kenneth Anger is perhaps the most widely known experimental filmmaker in the world. His latest film reflects his enduring obsession with the entertainment industry and the celebrities that orbit around it. Mouse Heaven sits somewhere between a tribute and a scathing critique. In it Anger shows us the world’s largest collection of Mickey Mouse memorabilia accompanied by a bizarre musical soundtrack including The Boswell Sisters and the Proclaimers. Outraged by the legal ‘ownership’ of this archetypal character, Anger chose to make a film that Disney couldn’t legally object to, by depicting the company’s own merchandise.

RUNAWAY
Standish Lawder, USA, 1969, 6 min, sound
In ‘Runaway’ Standish Lawder entraps a pack of Walt Disney’s cartoon dogs in a seemingly endless four second mobius strip. Made using a homemade optical printer fashioned from a coffee can, the benign original is elevated into its own filmic reality through various degenerative processes and manipulations. An equally repetitive wurlitzeresque soundtrack affirms the perpetual urgency of the image.