Musica Elettronica Viva

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MEV redirects here. For the physics measurement of energy, see MeV

Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in Rome in 1966. Over the years, its members have included Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum, Frederic Rzewski, Allan Bryant, Carol Plantamura, Ivan Vandor, Steve Lacy, and Jon Phetteplace.

They were early experimenters with the use of synthesizers to transform sounds: a 1967 concert in Berlin included a performance of John Cage's Solo for Voice 2 with Plantamura's voice transformed through a Moog synthesizer. They also used such "non-musical" objects as amplified panes of glass and olive oil cans, and their performances achieved notoriety in Italy for their ability to generate riots.

Their recordings include

Spacecraft, recorded in Cologne in 1967 by Bryant, Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum and Vandor
Unified Patchwork Theory, recorded in Zurich in 1990 by Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Steve Lacy, and Garrett List

-- both of the above rereleased in 2001 on the CD, "Spacecraft/Unified Patchwork Theory" (Alga Marghen, Plana-M 15NMN.038)

Friday, recorded in London in 1969 by Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Franco Cataldi and Gunther Carius
"The Sound Pool," recorded 1969, reissued 1998 (Spalax CD14969)

Active to this day, 2005 saw the release of an MEV double CD, Apogee, shared with another of the electronic improvisational ensembles that emerged during the 1960s: AMM. The first CD is a studio recording in a joint session in England on April 30, 2004 featuring MEV's Curran, Teitelbaum and Rzewski with the three members of AMM. This is the first occasion that the two ensembles have performed together, but not the first time they have shared a split release - each outfit filled a side of the LP Live Electronic Music Improvised, released on a US label in 1968. The second CD consists of the performances that each group gave at a festival held in London on May 1, 2004.

While in Rome during the sixties, the MEV studio was on the ground floor of a building in Via Pietro Peretti, in the Trastevere neighborhood. Around the corner with Via de' Genovesi, lived Alan Bryant on the first floor. Three blocks away, in Via della Luce 55, fourth and last floor, lived Frederic Rzewski, and at No. 66, lived Richard Teitelbaum on the third floor. Carol Plantamura lived on the corner of Via della Luce and Via Giulio Cesare Santini. Alvin Curran lived 2 km away, in Via dell'Orso, near Piazza Navona.