RAYMOND SCOTT Electronium demo for Motown Records one-of-a-kind 10" acetate

$

1,500

Condition: Strict VG grade. Surface shows only light stray lines and plays nice and quiet. Label hand-stamped "RUNDOWN." Comes housed in original manilla folder with "Josette Valentino" penned upper left and internal Motown approval receipt.
Shipping: Free within the U.S. or $50 overseas.

Notes: Demo record with four untitled tracks produced by Scott to demonstrate his Electronium (now owned by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh). Track two was issued on the Manhattan Research Inc compilation as "Twilight in Turkey." This is a one-of-a-kind Reference Recording/acetate demo. Message us for sound clips. 
Gaetano “Guy” Costa worked under Berry Gordy at Motown in Los Angeles from 1969 to 1987, variously as Head of Operations and Chief Engineer, running the recording studios. Ralph Lotten was the recording engineer for Motown. Josette Valentino worked for Berry Gordy (and was singer for golden age Stevie Wonder lps).

[The Electronium] was one of the very few electronic creations of Scott to be sold to a customer, as he was normally highly secretive about his devices. A single Electronium machine was sold to Motown Records, following a 1969 meeting between Scott and Motown's Berry Gordy. The initial contract required that Scott visited Motown for three months to teach staff how the machine is used. This culminated in the 1971 hiring of Scott to serve as director of Motown's electronic music and research department in Los Angeles, California, a position that Scott held until 1977. 

No Motown recordings using Scott's electronic inventions have yet been publicly identified.

Guy Costa, Head of Operations and Chief Engineer at Motown from 1969 to 1987, said about Scott's hiring: He started originally working [on the Electronium] out of Berry's house. They set up a room over the garages, and he worked there putting stuff together so Berry could get involved and see the progress. At one point Scott worked out of a studio. The unit never really got finalized — Ray had a real problem letting go. It was always being developed. That was a problem for Berry. He wanted instant gratification. Eventually his interest started to wane after a period of probably two or three years. Finally Ray took the thing down to his house and kept working on it. Berry kind of lost interest. He was off doing Diana Ross movies.

Adding to the difficulty of defining what the Electronium was and how it worked is the fact that it was never finished. Scott continued to develop it during his employment at Motown, and after his dismissal there he carried on working on the machine, stopping only when his deteriorating health abruptly halted him from carrying on, after his first of several strokes.
The Electronium is currently owned by Devo's co-founder and lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh, who has initiated efforts towards its restoration.In 2017, Brian Kehew began working on the restoration of the Electronium, in an effort partially financed by Gotye.
-Source: Wikipedia