List of experimental musicians
This is a list of notable experimental musicians, in alphabetical order by surname.
A-E
- Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah – (Egypt) experimental music
- Acid Mothers Temple – Experimental psychedelic rock
- Miguel Álvarez-Fernández – experimental radio and sound installations
- Giulio Aldinucci – experimental electroacoustic composer
- Laurie Anderson – electronic music
- Ron Anderson – noise and progressive
- Robert Ashley – totalist television opera
- Nigel Ayers – (UK) sound art, sound collage, member of Nocturnal Emissions
- Derek Bailey – guitarist
- Beck - (USA) Anti-folk and experimental music
- David Behrman – live electronics
- Boredoms – Japanese noise rock
- Burkhard Beins – percussion and objects
- Buckethead – guitarist
- Glenn Branca – guitar, noise ensemble
- George Brecht – performance art
- Bull of Heaven – minimalism, noise, drone, avant-garde jazz, modern classical
- Gavin Bryars – indeterministic orchestration
- John Cage – indeterminate music
- Can – Krautrock band
- Captain Beefheart - avant-garde blues artist.
- Cornelius Cardew – British composer
- Rhys Chatham – guitar, noise ensemble
- Coil – sidereal sound, scrying, hallucinogens, ANS
- Nicolas Collins
- Loren Mazzacane Connors
- Controlled Bleeding – Paul Lemos
- David Cope – composer, computerist
- Henry Cowell – (USA) tone clusters and Extended technique
- Alvin Curran – found sounds
- Current 93 – coined the term "apocalyptic folk"
- Chris Cutler – English experimental music composer and percussionist
- Dead Air Fresheners – masked, anonymous chance music or indeterminate music ensemble
- Stuart Dempster – reverberant spaces, just intonation, extended trombone techniques
- The Dillinger Escape Plan – experimental metal, mathcore
- Arnold Dreyblatt – just intonation
- Kevin Drumm – guitarist
- Iancu Dumitrescu – composer, founder of Hyperion group dedicated to experimental music
- Judy Dunaway
- Kyle Bobby Dunn – composer, arranger, experimental guitarist
- Trevor Dunn – bassist
- Marc Edwards – free jazz
- Leif Elggren
- Brian Eno – ambient music, algorithmic composition
- Experimental Audio Research – ambient, synth/noise
F-J
- Morton Feldman – composer
- Henry Flynt – violinist, guitarist, inventor of Electronic Hillbilly Music
- David First – drones and interference beats
- Ellen Fullman – long string Instrument
- Diamanda Galás – vocalist, composer
- Qubais Reed Ghazala - musician, composer, father of circuit-bending
- Philip Glass – minimalism, composer
- Percy Grainger – composer and performer
- Bruce Haack – experimental electronic composer
- Half Japanese – experimental indie rock
- The Hafler Trio
- Lou Harrison – (USA) gamelan influenced
- Carl Michael von Hausswolff
- Joseph Haydn – composer
- Pierre Henry – musique concrète
- Katt Hernandez – violinist, microtonalist, improviser
- Lejaren Hiller – first computer composition Illiac Suite (1957) with Leonard Issacson
- Susumu Hirasawa
- Christopher Hobbs – experimental and systems music composer
- Tim Hodgkinson – English experimental music composer and performer
- Gustav Holst – English composer
- Emily Howell – computer composer
- The Hub – interactive real time computer network: John Bischoff, Tim Perkis, Chris Brown, Phil Stone, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Mark Trayle
- I Set My Friends on Fire
- Martín Irigoyen – guitar, prepared guitar, multi-instrumentalist, steampunk, composer
- Charles Ives – quarter tones, tone clusters, aleatoric music, polyrhythm and polytonality
- Don Joyce – sound collage
K-P
- KK Null
- Anne La Berge – flute, improvisation, electronics, composition
- André Éric Létourneau – gamelan, flute, composition, chance-operations, electronic music, microtonal music
- George Lewis – trombone, composition, improvisation, electronic music, computer music
- Steve Lieberman – American punk bassist, flutist called The Gangsta Rabbi
- Lightning Bolt – noise rock
- Franz Liszt – composer and performer
- Annea Lockwood – environmental sounds
- Alvin Lucier – (USA) acoustical phenomena
- John Lydon – (UK) singer
- Melvins – experimental metal
- Meshuggah – extreme metal, experimental metal, progressive metal
- Miya Masaoka – composer and performer
- Merzbow – (Japan) noise music
- Moondog – composer
- Gordon Mumma – live electronics
- Roberto Musci – guitar & sampler
- Muslimgauze – (UK)
- Ben Neill – sound installations, mutantrumpet
- Phill Niblock – minimal music composer
- Nocturnal Emissions – (UK)
- Nurse With Wound – (UK and Ireland) collaborative solo project of artist Steven Stapleton
- Michael Nyman – (UK) composer and former critic and musicologist
- The Observatory – Singapore-based art-rock band
- Obsil – (ITA) composition, electronic music
- Olivier Messiaen - (France) composer and organist.
- Pauline Oliveros – (USA) meditative music, just intonation, reverberant spaces, Expanded Instrument System
- Yoko Ono – (UK, USA, Japan) happenings
- John Oswald – (USA) plunderphonics
- Nam June Paik – happenings, action music
- Paul Panhuysen – string and other sound installations
- Evan Parker – (UK) saxophonist
- Harry Partch – (USA) microtonal composer
- Henri Pousseur – (Belgium) self-described as "experimental"
Q-Z
- Radiohead (UK) – alternative rock, experimental rock
- A.R.Rahman – (India) Film Music composer
- Steve Reich – (USA) multimedia documentary opera
- Hans Reichel – Free improvisation musician and inventor of electro-acoustic instruments
- Renaldo and the Loaf – (UK)
- The Residents – (USA)
- Boyd Rice – (USA) noise music, ambient music
- Terry Riley – (USA) multimedia minimalist composer
- David Rosenboom – biofeedback (human)
- Keith Rowe – British guitarist
- Luigi Russolo – Futurism and noise music
- Kristoffer Rygg – Frontman and main composer of Ulver
- Erik Satie – precursor of minimalism, dada
- Pierre Schaeffer – Musique concrète
- Elliott Sharp – multi-instrumentalist
- Solage – composer
- Sonic Youth – noise rock band
- Howard Stelzer – (USA)
- Sunn o))) – drone metal band
- Toru Takemitsu – composer
- James Tenney – alternate tunings, perceptual phenomena
- Lynda Thomas - experimental musician and performer
- Throbbing Gristle – industrial music, noise, shock lyrics
- Edgard Varèse – electronic music
- Vitamin S – An experimental musical collective
- Michael Waller – contemporary music
- Ween - psychedelic and lo-fi band that covers a multitude of genres
- Kathleen Yearwood – experimental, avant garde composer
- La Monte Young – just intonation, minimalist, drone music
- Richard Youngs – postmodern minimalist
- Frank Zappa – composer and performer
- Evan Ziporyn – (Bang on a Can), gamelan
- John Zorn – postmodern, various genres
- Zoviet France – British band
See also
- List of musicians by genre