Musica Elettronica Viva

Musica Elettronica Viva resisted classification as any ordinary ensemble. Instead MEV operated more like an evolving movement devoted to spontaneous composition in the shape of avant-garde electronic jazz. Three separate yet linked ensembles claimed the name during the opening years of the 1970s: the New York lineup that featured Richard Teitelbaum and Frederic Rzewski, the Paris group steered by Patricia and Ivan Coaquette before his Spacecraft period, and the Rome collective begun by Alvin Curran. In 1970 the French label BYG released two albums that drew musicians from every MEV branch. One of them, Sound Pool, documents a concert from 1969; both that recording and Leave the City later received reissues from Spalax2 in the late 1990s. A further document, the 1977 album Unified Patchwork Theory, unites Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Karl Berger, Garrett List, and Steve Lacy.