The users of Alva met in Tampa, Florida, in 1990 and formed a music group that defies comparison. Playing music grounded in acoustic and blowing wind devices, including violin, sax, piano, and bone tissue flute, Alva released their debut recording, Fair-Haired Guillotine, around the Avant label in 1997. Liza Wakeman (ex-Chocolate USA), Michelle Anderson, and Aida Ruilova will be the initial and continuing users of the music group. In past due 1997, Anderson made an appearance on a launch by Neutral Dairy Resort, playing sax on several songs. Alva performed in the 1997 Terrastock Event, an advantage concert for the publication Ptolemaic Terrascope.