Musica Elettronica Viva Spacecraft

Limited edition LP Translucent green vinyl* Musica Elettronica Viva, or MEV for short, was formed in 1966 in Rome by Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace, Carol Plantamura, Frederic Rzweski, Richard Teitelbaum and Ivan Vandor. From the very beginning the group was based on musical freedom and the shunning of convention. Using contact microphones to record and manipulate sound wherever it could be found – from box springs to vibrators – and improvisationally combining those recordings with tenor sax, homemade synths and the very first Moog to trek cross the Atlantic, MEV made some of the most imaginative and abrasive sounds of the time.  

Recorded in live performance at the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) in Berlin on October 5, 1967, Spacecraft is made up of a single piece of the same name – a slow building, jarring and disquieting work that reveals the entire MEV ethos in its lone half hour. As group member Alvin Curran put it “The music could go anywhere, gliding into self-regenerating unity or lurching into irrevocable chaos - both were valuable goals. In the general euphoria of the times, MEV thought it had re-invented music; in any case it had certainly rediscovered it.” Our Swimmer is pleased to present this first ever vinyl issue of MEV’s Spacecraft, an early piece from the most free-spirited group of the 20th century avant-garde. Translucent green vinyl.

Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in Rome, Italy, in 1966. It is "something of an irregular institution, a band that has come together intermittently through the years". Its founding members have been reported variously as Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace, and Frederic Rzewski; Rzewski, Curran, and Richard Teitelbaum; Curran, Phetteplace, Bryant, and Carol Plantamura;and Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Plantamura, Bryant, Phetteplace, Ivan Vandor, and Steve Lacy. Garrett List and George E. Lewis subsequently joined the group.

MEV 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. At the end of the 1960s, they took part in the group Lo Zoo, founded by artist Michelangelo Pistoletto. They also used such "non-musical" objects as amplified panes of glass and olive oil cans.

Their performances achieved notoriety in Italy for their ability to generate riots.[citation needed]

The final MEV tour was in 2017.

Spacecraft 1967

Spacecraft I (13:23)

Spacecraft II (17:12)

SpaceCraft (1967)

Kalimba [Mbira Thumb Piano Mounted On A Ten-litre Agip Motor Oil Can], Electronics [Contact Microphones], Trumpet [Amplified], Voice – Alvin Curran

Performer [Amplified Glass Plate With Attached Springs], Electronics [Contact Microphones] – Frederic Rzewski

Synthesizer [Homemade From Electronic Organ Parts] – Allan Bryant

Synthesizer [Modular Moog], Electronics [Contact Microphones], Voice – Richard Teitelbaum

Tenor Saxophone – Ivan Vandor

Voice – Carol Plantamura