Formed in Rome in the late 60s, the ever shifting collective Musica Elettronica Viva included
such luminaries as Fred Rzewski, Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum among others, and
aimed to conduct the most radical experiments in sound possible. Although the above were
primarily composers they were greatly inspired by avant-garde jazz titans such as Cecil
Taylor and John Coltrane and were intent on drawing on any sound source, from keyboards
and drums to cans and plates of glass.
Like a volcanic eruption and ensuing lava flow The Sound Pool is a masterful electronic
music opus that retains all the heat and light of the kind of performance associated with a
stellar improviser. Constantly changing shape and density the music veers provocatively
between the distinctive curls
and squelches of synthesizers and the crash and stomp of household or industrial objects
that are amplified and manipulated to conjure all the imagery of a marathon piece of
physical theatre.
This re-mastered version of The Sound Pool confirms Musica Eletttronica Viva as one of the
most original artists of the late 20th century. The ensemble blurred the boundary between
electrics and acoustics and conventional and unconventional instruments to create
something that still sounds as if it is on the cusp of the present and the future.
