Each month in the magazine we play an artist or group a series of tracks which they are asked to comment on – with no prior knowledge of what they are about to hear.

In The Wire 495 it is the turn of composer and Musica Elettronica Viva co-founder Alvin Curran.

Here you can listen to a mix of the tracks our correspondent Julian Cowley played to Alvin during the interview, which is published in full in The Wire 495. To find out what Alvin said about them, subscribers can read the interview in our online magazine library here. Or you can buy a copy of the magazine in our online shop.

But first, a brief biography of our subject:

Alvin Curran continues to play a key role in redefining the terms of music making for our time. Following a mainstream musical education, including postgraduate study at Yale, where his composition teachers included Mel Powell and Elliott Carter, he has produced notable works scored for chamber ensembles, vocalists and solo instrumentalists, while simultaneously taking imaginative steps to open up the field that has come to be recognised as sound art. Curran’s distinctive voice has grown and taken shape not only through works written specifically for the concert hall, but also through his pioneering use of field recordings, his thought-provoking installations and ambitious environmental artworks, including large-scale events staged in public spaces.

Curran has lived for many years in Rome where, in 1966, he was co-founder, with others including Richard Teitelbaum and Frederic Rzewski, of the groundbreaking free improvisation group Musica Elettronica Viva. The long-held conventional distinction between formally composed works and spontaneous, unconstrained music making has been swept away by his own liberated, versatile and resourceful approach. In Curran’s work conventional boundaries are constantly crossed or entirely erased, as he seeks to create situations in which our relationship with sounds of all kinds is enriched, jolted from routine and set loose from inherited assumptions and prejudices that habitually constrain the way we listen.

The Jukebox took place online with Curran in Rome. He had just returned from Istanbul, where he had given a solo concert, and he was taking time off from preparation for his imminent involvement in this year’s Rewire festival in The Hague.

Alvin Curran’s Invisible Jukebox playlist (with timestamps)

Daniel Kordik & Eddie Prévost (00:00)
“A Cake In The Lobby”
From End No End
(Earshots!) 2024

Frederic Rzewski (21:36)
“Attica”
From Attica/Coming Together/Les Moutons De Panurge
(Opus One/Black Sweat) 1974

Luciano Chessa (28:09)
“Příliš Hlučná Samota”
From The Noise Of Art/Works For Intonarumori
(Sub Rosa) 2019

John Oswald/Grateful Dead (36:26)
“Pouring Velvet/In Revolving Ash Light”
From Grayfolded
(Swell Music) 1994

Natasha Barrett (56:15)
“Impossible Moments From Venice 2”
From Reconfiguring The Landscape
(Persistence Of Sound) 2023

Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (1:04:13)
“Schema 2”
From Musica Su Schemi
(Cramps) 1976

Anthony Braxton (1:15:37)
“Piece 3”
From Creative Orchestra Music 1976
(RCA Bluebird) 1976

Charlie Morrow (1:22:19)
“TOOT N BLINK Chicago”
From Toot!
(XI Records) 2011

Richard Teitelbaum (1:30:48)
“Solo For Three Pianos”
From Piano Plus
(New World) 2013

Derek Bailey (1:36:54)
“Georgia On My Mind”
From Ballads
(Tzadik) 2002

Ben Patterson (1:41:53)
“Paper Piece”
From Early Works
(Alga Marghen) 1999