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The Sound Pool

by Musica Elettronica Viva

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve.

    Original 1970 BYG album facsimile-edition
    Mastered to vinyl from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins
    Lacquers cut by Cicely Balston at AIR STUDIOS
    Exclusive liner notes by author and journalist Kevin Le Gendre

    SIDE 1
    1. The Sound Pool (Part 1)
    2. The Sound Pool (Untitled 1)

    SIDE 2
    1. The Sound Pool (Part 2)
    2. The Sound Pool (Untitled 2)

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Sound Pool via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      £25 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve & printed inner wallet.

    Original 1970 BYG album
    Digitally mastered from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins
    16-page booklet with photos & exclusive liner notes by author and journalist Kevin Le Gendre

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Sound Pool via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      £13 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5 GBP  or more

     

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about

PIONEERS OF LIVE ELECTRONICS, FOUND SOUND AND URBAN ENVIRONMENT-AS-INSTRUMENT, MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA CREATED SUITES THAT WERE AS IMAGINARY AS IMAGINATIVE

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.

As this 1970 BYG recording, The Sound Pool emphatically proved, MEV crafted an intricate sonic architecture by playing synthesizers, horns and sundry objects, and engaging in audacious treatments of the audio ‘on the fly’. The prevailing boundary between acoustic and electronic worlds was blurred by a band that was not a band, using a range of instruments that were often not instruments. Furthermore, the constantly shifting, unpredictable nature of the personnel bucked convention.

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.

Above all, true to Rzewski’s edict, MEV conveys unbridled freedom and spontaneity, or the sense of the collective voice and cumulative energy of the individuals growing into a potent new entity. Invigoration, propulsion, mutation. At times The Sound Pool unleashes a tidal wave of noise, which has the kind of tonal density achieved by Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz. What is enthralling is the amount of unidentifiable timbres relentlessly generated by the network of real and ‘imagined’ instruments.

“This re-mastered version of The Sound Pool confirms Musica Elettronica 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.” Kevin Le Gendre

Original 1970 BYG album remastered from original BYG tapes.
High definition digital audio 96kHz 24bit wav.

credits

released February 24, 2023

2023 Remastered Audiophile Edition
Executive producer for this re-issue: Jean-Luc Young
Re-issue produced for release by Geoffrey Cousin
Audio restoration and mastering from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins
Graphic design for this re-issue by Phil Rogers

A BYG Production
P 1970 BYG Records
C 2023 Charly Acquisitions Ltd.

An Original BYG Recording
Courtesy of Charly Acquisitions Ltd.
Licensed from LicenseMusic.com ApS.

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all rights reserved

tags

about

BYG Records London, UK

Pioneering French independent record label launched in 1967.

Avant-Garde / Free Jazz / Experimental / Psychedelic & Prog Rock

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