review 3 The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings 2006

**** Apogee

A historic encounter. No other improvising ensemble has explored the philosophy of sound and its techniques more thoroughly than Musica Ellecttronica Viva. By contrast to AMM's substantial archive of recordings, MEV is only sparsely documented, partly because the group's membership and ethos has changed so radically over the decades. The key elements in this configuration are Rzewski's classically aware and thoroughly Europeanized pianism (very different to Tilbury's which ironically draws more from American examples) and Teitelbaum's virtuosic use of synthesizers.
On the last day of April and the first day of May 2004, AMM/MEV first made a studio recording as a collective and then played separately as part of the 'Freedom of the City' festival in London. The three studio improvisations are unmistakably not the work of either ensemble alone, though parsing the differences takes some effort. As ever, it is pointless trying to determine who is playing what. Prévost's percussion effects and Rowe's tabletop abstractions and outbreaks of radio noise sometimes emerge from the mix; Teitelbaum has a liking for shimmering figures of great harmonic complexity. Beyond that, it is not worthwhile to explore; the encounter generates a hugely involved synthesis in which elements of both groups seem to remain intact but inseparable from the whole.
We'd recommend listening to the live sets first, not just to establish contact with MEV's less familiar improvisational language (check out Curran's huge opening blasts on the Hebrew shohar) but because the quiet drama of the collaboration only makes complete sense after one has sampled the more linear approach of the Americans. A long, demanding listen, but packed with astonishing music. Even if only as a historical document Apogee is worth having.