Musica Elettronica Viva could not be easily defined as one band. Instead, MEV was closer to a movement based around the idea of free improvisation in the form of experimental, electronic jazz.In the early '70s, there were three different (but related) bands that went by the name: one in New York that included Richard Teitelbaum and Frederic Rzewski; one in Paris, led by Patricia and Ivan Coaquette (before his Spacecraft days); and one in Rome, founded by Alvin Curran. In 1970, the French label BYG issued two recordings that included members from each of the branches of MEV. The first of these, Sound Pool, is a live 1969 performance — both this and Leave the City were re-issued in the late '90s by Spalax2.

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.

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