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It is hoped that this database will house as many online resources for experimental music as possible. This is divided into seven sections: digital music, festivals, labels, performers, radio, shopSpaces and magaZines. An eighth section, links, leads to other sites where more detailed information about specific types of music may be found. Please send me any corrections or additions as and when they appear.
digital music
For the two principle operating platforms, the best set of software resources on the web are to be found at these Calarts sites: Macintosh users click here; PC users click here. Christopher DeLaurenti's software page is an excellent source for PC users. Mac users should also check out the Max and SuperCollider programs.
More and various types of software are available at the following sites. Some are freeware, some shareware and some, of course, you'll have to pay for...axgrindr, machines, Shareware Music Machine, yahoo
For mp3, mp3.com and mp3meta.com are excellent starting points. Liquid Audio and Real Audio are also well worth checking out.
AGON (Italy) "AGON represents a stable and permanent reference point for musical production and research, sound-design, live performance of new vocal, instrumental and music-theater works. AGON openly aims to become a pole of development of contemporary art-forms and music by creating initiatives, events and projects that involve the collaboration of multi-medial artists who are not necessairily musicians. AGON communicates its own internal activity via concert, performances, conferences, publications of both recorded and written materials."
Algorhythmic Arts The home, amongst other things, of DNA-based music. Interesting.
Big Briar, Inc. (USA) "Greetings from Bob Moog and the folks at Big Briar. We are a community of musicians, business professionals, and technicians who work together to bring you some of the finest electronic music gear on today's market. We draw on a long tradition of analog design to build instruments with great sound, musician-friendly user interfaces, and rugges, good-looking classic-style enclosures"
Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities "Where new technology and traditional scholarship meet." This center, based in Stanford, CA, is "engaged in the development of large databases of musical and textual materials for applications in research, teaching, and performance."
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics "The Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics is a multi-disciplinary facility where composers and researchers work together using computer-based technology both as an artistic medium and as a research tool.
Center for New Music and Audio Technology (USA) "Promoting the Creative Interaction between Music and Technology."
Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology (USA) "CREATE serves as a productive environment available to students, researchers, and media artists for the realization of music and multimedia works. Courses are offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels in collaboration with several departments. The Center also serves as a laboratory for research and development of a new generation of software and hardware tools to aid in media-based composition."
Centre International de Recherche Musicale (France) CIRM is responsible for research in the areas of "electroacoustic music, live electronic, sound installations, sound design for motion pictures, CD Rom and Web sites...". It also organises festivals such as MANCA.
Centro Tempo Reale (Italy) "Tempo Reale, founded by Luciano Berio in 1987, is a centre for musical research, production and education. Tempo Reale is supported by the Regione Toscana, Comune di Firenze, RAI (Italian Radio and Television Network) and receives also State funding from the Dipartimento dello Spettacolo. The activities of Tempo Reale focus on the production of musical works employing new tecnologies, research in areas including sound spatialization and musical signal processing in real time and the restoration and re-mastering of historical electroacoustic works."
Chinese Computer Music Association "We, members of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA), also participants of this year's International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 99, Beijing), would like to invite you to participate in the establishing of an international computer music organization for Chinese composers, scholars, musicians from every corner of the Earth. Non-Chinese professionals who work in Chinese regions are also welcomed. "
Collective JukeBox "Collective JukeBox is an open free audio "workspace", which is continuously open since 1996. It works as a "groupware" and offers a free use of sound-systems and internet-system, as public and working interfaces. Autonomous and evolutive system, co-operative and international project, Collective JukeBox is currently moderated by the audio community itself andis a kind of continuous musical and sound laboratory open to the public audience."
Computer Music Resources
Creating Music Morton Subotnik's evolving site for "online music creation and exploration. Come discover fun and easy ways to make music!"
Ear to the Ground "If the movements of each person browsing through Yahoo! right now made a sound, what would that sound like? "
electronicmusic.com This site, full of links, software and extensive references, was set up in 1995 "to help promote and de-mystify the many aspects of electronic music".
Fractal Music Project According to Claus-Dieter Schulz, who runs the FMP, fractal music is "a result of a recursive process where an algorithm is applied multiple times to process its previous output". The site contains academic papers, software, musical examples and a good set of links.
GAIV (France) "Le GAIV (Groupe Art et Informatique de Vincennes à St Denis) est un groupe du Laboratoire d'Intelligence Artificielle de Paris 8. Sur ce site, vour trouverez des programmes freeware à télécharger, la liste des membres du GAIV, les publications et concerts du GAIV."
Grame A French site involved in the development of software along similar lines to IRCAM in Paris. They supply a very fine MIDI program, MIDIShare, which is available as freeware.
Groupe de Recherches Musicales (France) A repository of sound information emanating from this pioneering electronic studio. Almost all in French.
International Computer Music Association "The International Computer Music Association is an international affiliation of individuals and institutions involved in the technical, creative, and performance aspects of computer music. It serves composers, computer software and hardware developers, researchers, and musicians who are interested in the integration of music and technology."
IRCAM (France) French-language site for the Institude de Recherche et Coordination Acoustic/Musique. IRCAM is situated in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and is the place where much of the most famous electronic music of the last half century was made, much of it under the watchful eye of Pierre Boulez.
Logos Foundation (Flanders/Belgium) "The Logos Foundation is Flanders' unique professional organisation for the promotion of new musics and audio related arts by means of new music production, concerts, performances, composition, technological research projects and other contemporary music related activities." This extensive site contains a good links page and an excellent magazine online.
Longplayer "A thousand year musical composition, it will play continuously and without repetition from 1 January 2000 until its completion on 31 Decmber 2999."
Lovebytes "An ongoing programme of commissions and events exploring interactive audio, digital sound synthesis, generative music and algorythmic compositon."
Machine Listening Group (USA) "The Machine Listening Group is working towards bridging the gap between the current generation of audio technologies and those that will be needed for future interactive media applications. Our research includes new description-based representations for audio that enable controllable, compact and computationally-efficient sound and music rendering and presentation. We are also concerned with the application of research from psycho-acoustics and auditory perception and cognition to engineering solutions for new audio applications. These include 3D spatialization, virtual acoustics and computational analysis of complex real-world auditory scenes such as multi-instrument music recordings and so-called "cocktail party" problems. These new technologies are essential to new media applications which demand automatic browsing and access to content, as well as control over the production and presentation of audio information."
Steim (The Netherlands) Steim is responsible for much of the research and development of instruments and tools, specially made for composers and performers in the electronic arts. The links and software pages are particularly interesting and, if you have a viable project for a new use for an old instrument, they may very well be able to help.
Symbolic Sound Corporation (USA) "Symbolic Sound Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets hardware and software for computer-based digital audio. They are the creators of the Kyma sound design workstation, a visual sound design language with associated Capybara multi-DSP hardware accelerator. Kyma is being used to do sound design for music, film, advertising, television, virtual environments, speech and hearing research, computer games, and other virtual environments."
TOP OF PAGE digital music festivals labels links performers radio shopSpaces magaZines
festivals
All Tomorrow's Parties (USA)
Angelica (Italy) International music festival held annually in Bologna.
Archipel (Switzerland) "Ecouter, sans divagation aucune, sans se laisser distraire par les 'bruits de la vie', est-ce encore e&acu;couter?"
Avanto Festival (Finland) "Helsinki media-art festival"
Bang on a Can (USA) "New York's legendary Bang on a Can Festival was founded by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe in 1987. Dedicated to the work of composers across the entire aesthetic spectrum, Bang on a Can makes a home for musical inventors, misfits and pioneers."
Cathedral "...festival of internet music from five continents..."
DEAF (The Netherlands) Dutch Electronic Arts Festival
Dissonanze (Italy) "Dissonanze is the first italian event dedicated to innovative electronic music. A full immersion in a technological universe created by dee jays, visual artists and the protagonists of computer music of the last decade. Two nights dedicated to the lovers of a genre that fuses together entertainment and experimental music, digital and analogic, the best art galleries and the most important dancefloors in the world. "
Earational (The Netherlands) "Electronic Music and Audio Art"
Electrograph "athens cutting edge sound and media"
Elektronikaldia (Euskadi/Spain) "Electronic music festival of Donostia/San Sebastian"
Festival E&acu;couter Voir (France)
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (Canada)
Festival of New American Music (USA) California State University at Sacramento's annual festival.
(UK) "futuresonic is an open forum for the exploration of horizons in sound providing a focus for new initiatives and opening hybrid spaces for sonic and visual pleasure."
Göteborg Art Sounds (Sweden) "classical improvised soundart beat"
High Zero (USA) "The High Zero Festival is, as far as we can tell, a utopian festival of improvised music UNPRECEDENTED on the East Coast in the last ten years. Located in Baltimore, Maryland, the festival is both a meeting for an inspired international subculture of players, and also a "non-pandering" mass exposure to an unusually wide audience for such challenging music. It isn't about stars or bands, it is about the most radical and stimulating improvised music we can bring together."
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK) Britain's leading annual festival of experimental composed musics.
Impakt (The Netherlands) An audio-visual art festival.
LEM (Catalunya) "Bear in mind that LEM tries to be an antidote against boredom as well as an opportunity to be get touch with types of music that do not consent to be carried away by the stream they often generate. Welcome to the birth of the music that is yet to come."
MANCA (France) This festival, Musiques Actuelles de la Côte d'Azur, "has been co-produced with the city of Nice since 1978, generating over 500 shows, totalizing more than 1000 world and national premieres. After almost 20 years of existence, the MANCA has become one of the most sought after and widely followed new music event for the public and professionals alike."
MIMI (France) "Mouvement International des Musiques Innovatrices"
Musica Nova Helsinki (Finland)
Music Unlimited (Austria)
Musique Actuelle (Quebec/Canada) "Since 1982, the Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville is dedicated to promoting new musics of all genres (jazz, rock, contemporary, improvisation, electroacoustic, etc.). During its years of activity, the Festival has offered annually some 25 concerts in 5 days, featuring about 120 musicians from more than 10 countries."
Mutek (Canada) "MUTEK is an annual gathering showcasing emerging forms of electronic music and the latest trends in sound creation. Its mission is to be on the cutting edge of innovation and to provide an environment for discovery. "
North West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization (USA) NWEAMO is "dedicated to promoting all styles of music using electronics - from pop and rock to music concrete and fully-scored pieces - and to putting electro-acoustic composers in the Pacific North west in contact with the international electronic music community".
Observatori (Spain) "Observatori brings together a series of artists who share the same experience; an artistic journey. This Festival will hope to generate an open discourse that moves beyond the boundaries and demarkations of pre-conditions. By gathering together these artists, as ´artists` in the classical sense of the word, we are unbinding its meaning derived from the post-modern period. We renounce that specialist and particularist connotation that, recently spawned, limits us artists by its definition of the arena of artistic intervention. To go around putting labels on each artist is to fix them in quadratic and critically arthritic boxes. To cage their creative labour into the performance of just one stereotype in a specific artistic medium (i.e. video, sculpture, painting, music, etc...) is to demagnify the possibility of their creative capacities. Added to this, the experience and interpretation of the receptive public, results in mono-directionalism. We ourselves, are looking for a more flexible and human approach that could internally generate a new code, to enrich the creative experience of the public and the artists themselves."
Other Minds (USA) A festival of experimental music of all types, which takes place every March in San Francisco, CA.
Planet Tree (UK) "The Planet Tree Festival is a tonal contemporary music festival based in London, presenting the non-commercial / high artistic integrity face of new musical sound, alongside ecological speakers. "
Ring Ring (Yugoslavia) "
Alternative, avantgarde, druga godba, another music, musique actuelle, new music, druga nova muzika. So many labels for something so simple and exciting. Magic of discovery and joy for best musicians from here are sharing scene with worldwide known musicians of new music. World music, chamber music, alternative rock, improvisation, jazz, noise, new instruments, new meetings."
San Francisco Alternative Music Festival (USA) "Celebrating the new sonic revolution"
San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (USA)
send + receive (Canada) "send + receive: a festival of sound explores current experimentation in sound through music, audio art, installation, and radio works. "
Sergey Kuriokhin International Interdisciplinary Festival
Sónar (Spain) "SONAR is the obligatory meeting point for an alert public, cutting-edge artists and the most influential professionals from the sectors of music and modern arts."
Sons d'Hiver (France)
Sound Symposium (Canada) "We have it all...world music, classical, drumming and percussion, dance, performance art, whales, The Great Auk, Harbour Symphony, visual art, The Fire Organ, folk, multimedia, lectures, workshops, sound installations, gala performance, interactive, experimental instruments, new works, world premieres, jazz, contemporary compositions, exhibitions, improv, theatre, vocal, radio art...". The Harbour Symphony, a perennial favorite at the Sound Symposia, consists of music written especially for the horns of ships in the harbor of St Johns, Newfoundland, where the festival takes place.
Tampere Jazz Happening (Finland) "Tampere Jazz Happening is a festival of new jazz music, taking place in late October-early November every year since 1982. This event, which concentrates on modern jazz and its related forms, has the reputation of being the best jazz festival in Finland. The reputation has its origins in the unprejudiced and innovative programme selection of top quality. "
ThreeTwo Festival of New Music (USA) New York festival of contemporary composed musics, directed by Keith Moore and Taimur Sullivan.
Time of Music (Finland)
Transmission Festival (USA) "the annual experimental minimal electronic sound and art festival"
)toon) (The Netherlands)
Transmediale (Germany)
Ultima Festival (Norway) "Ultima's aim is to reflect the most important trends in contemporary art and music, and fulfilling this is in itself demanding enough at a time when so much is happening in the arts."
Uncool (Switzerland) "Festival of International Contemporary Music"
Verbindingen-Jonctions (Belgium)
Vision (USA)
What is Music? (Australia) A celebration of international experimental music, held annually in Melbourne and Sydney.
TOP OF PAGE digital music festivals labels links performers radio shopSpaces magaZines
labels
Accretions (USA) Marcos Fernandes' artist-run San Diego, California label: "where music is out there".
Acid Mothers Temple (Japan)
Ai Records "neue electronica"
Alien8 (Canada)
Annette Works (UK) "A label set up to produce works which use a real time exploitation of electronics in a particular place at a particular time"
Anomalous Records (USA) "...specialising in experimental, abstract, electroacoustic, soundscape, textural, sculptural, surreal, modern classical and other strange musics..." An excellent links page here, too.
Aoede Records (USA) "AOEDE RECORDS, a label devoted to original and exciting new music, caters to adventurous listeners. We believe that our releases must not only sound good but also look good. Our performers, engineers, editors, designers, and printers rank among the most talented and renowned in the business. Many of our recordings will be released as autographed limited editions, from a single CD to 5000 CDs."
Artifact Music (Canada) "One of North America's most astonishing founts of new music."
Artist Series (New Zealand) "a non-profit label releasing small runs of lathe cut 8"s and is New Zealand's most collectable label, with some of the covers collectable in their own right. "
Asphodel (USA)
Atavistic (USA) "Atavistic's new Unheard Music Series lets you access the heretofore inaccessible. Hand chosen by writer, producer and musician John Corbett, the series scours the earth in an ongoing treasure-hunt for rarities from the realms of action jazz, creative music and free improvisation, specializing in lost music of the '60s and '70s, but leaving room for particularly outstanding items that fall outside those stylistic and temporal waters. Drawing from radio archives, private tapes, collections of rare vinyl, and all sorts of unreleased sessions, often working hand-in-hand with the artists themselves, the series will focus on filling gaps in the historical record and illuminating otherwise dark corners of the musical continuum. The finest, most startling new discoveries and favorite forgotten moments by both world renowned and barely visible artists will be excavated, dusted off, and buffed up. Sure to surprise and delight avid fans and new listeners alike, Unheard Music Series reissues will always come equipped with original covers and new notes contextualizing the music, and first-release packages will include rare photos, historical info and, where possible, comments from the musicians themselves. "
Audraglint Recordings (USA)
Av-Art Records (Denmark) "Av-Art Records is a non-profit, publically funded Danish association for the promotion of improvised and related musics. We publish CDs, arrange concerts in Copenhagen with local and international participation and... produce this homepage. We hope it can turn into a medium of communication, exchange, discussion and mutual inspiration between people who are interested in these musics."
Bad Taste (Iceland) "
Barely Auditable Records (USA) Barely Auditable records is dedicated to releasing music which would otherwise fall into the oblivion of what is considered by corporate thinkers as "not commercially viable."
Beta-lactam Ring Records (USA) "B-lRRecords is a label dedicated to releasing uncommon music with unique packaging in this age of mass production."
Biink! Records (USA)
bio.codes_recordings (Latvia)
Bip-Hop (France)
Black Box (UK) "The UK's most innovative independent record label"
Bovine Life (UK)
Broke Bunnie Recordings (USA) "Never forget that music is much too important to be left in the hands of professionals". A very good links page here, too.
BSI Records (USA)
Caipirinha (USA) "re-inventing culture"
capp (Greece)
carpark records (USA)
cfom-music (USA) "chock full of mercenaries/music for the third ear"
Charhizma
Chicks on Speed (Germany)
clearspot (Germany)
Col Legno (Germany) "...the most significant label representing the world of contemporary classical music"
Cold Blue Music (USA)
Comatonse Recordings (USA) "Comatonse Recordings is dedicated to the production and dissemination of non-categorical contemporary electronic music. Originally founded in 1993 as the private label for Terre Thaemlitz, then a New York DJ, Comatonse releases emphasize the use of audiophile and specialty vinyl. Today, located in Oakland, Comatonse also offers digital editing and mixing services, and ambient/electroacoustic DJ performances." An attractive site with alluring graphics and audio files.
Composers Recordings, Inc. (USA) By far the most extensive catalog of American composed music available anywhere in the world.
Constellation Records (Canada) "Constellation is a record label and loft space devoted to exposing music from Montréal and the surrounding region. We are committed to the independent production and dissemination of culture, and see Constellation as a work-in-progress striving to map out and consolidate techniques for preserving artistic communities from the levelling death machinery of corporatism. All our label releases are hand-packaged using artisanal techniques that aim to encourage (however meagre our resources) a network of independent artists, bookbinders, die-makers, silk-screeners and printers. We also host a live performance series at our loft space, and stage the occasional recording."
Cranial Fracture Recordings (Australia) "Cranial Fracture Recordings represents music which fractures your skull; sounds that hammer and chisel away furiously at your head until they worm they way in and infect your brain. Whether it be constructing complex distorted beats to make your body move, or painting eerie and dark soundscapes of emotional intensity, Cranial Fracture Recordings wants to release music that you won't forget in a hurry."
Crawlspace Records (New Zealand)
Crippled Dick (Germany)
Crippled Intellect Productions (USA)
c74 (USA) "c74, a CD label brought to you by Cycling '74, is devoted to works by artists the world over who use Cycling '74 software technology to make astounding music and art."
Cuneiform Records (USA)
Deluxe (USA)
DiN (UK) "Purveyors of fine contemporary electronica".
Directions In Collaborative Audio "Our intention is to develop an independent record label, releasing remote network collaborations developed within our open, on-line community."
Disasters By Choice (Italy)
Domino Records (USA)
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Donemus (The Netherlands)
Drag City (USA)
Drunken Fish Records (USA)
Dual Plover (USA)
earsay "gutsy, new, experimental music"
EarthEar "Over the past 10 years, a new breed of sound artists has emerged, exploring nature's voices, humanity's soundings, and the myriad ways they can be woven into creative new expressions. For the first time, EarthEar brings the these sonic visionaries together. Join them as they share their discoveries in listening."
ECM (Germany) "directions in music and sound since 1969"
Electroshock (Russia) "this is the first russian site devoted to electronic, electroacoustic, experimental and avant-garde music"
empreintes DIGITALes "electroacoustic and beyond"
Erstwhile Records (USA)
Expanding Records "The Expanding Records Website is an international on-line resource for information relating to the Expanding Records catalogue of experimental non-vocal electronic music."
Experimental Intermedia (USA)
Extrasensory (UK) "Dedicated to contemporary sound art through the promotion of events and CD releases of artists' work." A very cool website!
FACT (Israel) An independent label in Jerusalem, one of whose goals is "to present and document the creative work that is happening on the street level, without being burdened with over production, and being tied to one musical genre."
Falçata-Galia (USA) "We concentrate on new music from these places, namely in the fields of electronic music, free jazz, experimental and avant-garde, progressive and ethnic music."
Fällt (Northern Ireland)
falsch An internet-only label from the Mego stable.
Family Vinyard Rcecords (USA)
FatCat Records (UK) "Purveyors of Quality Noise."
Far East Records (Hong Kong)
Fencing Flatworm Recordings (UK) "fencing flatworm recordings is a leeds-based, hi-tek-lo-fi, micro-label dedicated to electronic and experimental musics using a home pc set up and cheap-ass CDRs"
Firework Edition Records (Sweden) "Firework Edition Records moves freely between performance, music and the visual arts, and whose productions often reach a point where traditional aesthetic boundaries, limitations and concepts are eliminated. Firework Edition Records observe and document, experiment and ask questions, build up and tear down. They leave it to the listener/the viewer to take what he/she wants or simply leave. Firework Edition Records is a platform for contemporary sound art."
Fisheye (UK)
Forced Exposure (USA)
For4Ears Records (Switzerland)
Freedom From (USA) "Promise everything, deliver nothing". Hopeful, eh?
FreeNote Records (USA) "Welcome to FreeNote Music - microtonal guitars and recordings. We are dedicated to providing the best in alternate-tuned music."
Fylkingen Records (Sweden) The record label of the Fylkingen experimental arts society, concentrating on "electroacoustic music/text-sound composition and cotemporary chamber music".
Gaudeamus (The Netherlands)
Ganesha Rec (USA) A tape-based label, specialising in "experimental, noise and other strange music".
Giardia (USA)
Hefty Records (USA)
Incus Records (UK) "the first independent, musician - run record company in Britain"
Io Records (USA) "we release music that is both challenging and harsh yet at the same time, human and emotional. breaking music down to its purest element, sound, this element is used to its greatest potential as the compositions themselves. it's a theory where the whole is greater then the sum of the parts, but each part is in and of it self a whole"
Irritant (UK) "releasing any old shit since 1997"
Jerker Productions (Australia)
hat HUT Records (Switzerland) Excellent label covering jazz, improvised and contemporary classical musics.
Hoedown (Finland)
Hypnos (USA) "your best source for ambient/space/experimental music "
!K7 RECORDS (Germany) "Far from a one-dimensional dance label, the !K7 RECORDS' stable represents no one particular sound or style. Rather, it has always been fueled by a relentless commitment to release the brightest, most interesting sounds from the digital leftfield. That mission continues."
Kitchen Motors (Iceland) "Kitchen Motors is not really a record label. It¹s more like a think tank / playground where artists from all directions get together and collaborate, play some music, exhibit gut wrenching works of art, perform cryptic operas, produce films, books and radio shows based on the ideals of experimentation and collaboration. The main area of interest is in music, with special emphasis on the sparkly electronic and improvised kind."
Kolka (Latvia) "Kolka appeared amid thin gray forest of Latvian artists of the beginning of the 21st century. Its mission is to promote projects of artists and audio designers, who carry out experiments with phonic shapes."
kolo (USA)
(K-RAA-K)3 (Belgium) "(K-RAA-K)3 is a Belgian based independent organization who mainly promotes and distributes quality leftfield music. It's an office that centralizes publishing firms and artists to get a bigger impact and a faster stream to the media."
Labyrinth Recordings (USA) Admittedly near-defunct, this has a good lot of cassette releases of noise and electronic music and, what's more, a very comprehensive and wide-ranging links page.
La Musica (The ultimate underground label which dissects the musical vibrations of ethnic to contemporary classical,dives into
the abyss of medieval and avant-garde musics,expresses itself through the rock idiom,
and pursues all these aims within the field of psychedelia."
Leaf Label (UK)
Leo Records (UK) "Leo Records is a small independent company producing highly original, innovative, improvisation-based new music; music that refuses to be submitted to the market forces, that goes against the grain of current wisdoms; music that asks questions, provokes debate, generates ideas. This is music that matters."
Lime Green Yellow (UK) "A lot of incredibly cool free music"
L-NE "presenting new.digital.conceptual.ultra.minimalist.sound"
list (France) "dedicated to all approaches towards minimal/improvised/composed music"
Lovely Music, Ltd. (USA)
Lucky Kitchen (USA) "Our work states the fundamental importance of everyday life in opposition to the spectacle's whirling flashy lights."
Mego One of the foremost labels specialising in experimental electronic music, Mego "likes to see itself as a platform for all kinds of information and communication covered via modern electronic media".
Meme (Japan) A label offering minimal sounds with minimal packaging.
Menschenfeind Productions (USA) Menschenfeind "is an independent label and distro that deals with Extreme music and culture." Extreme is the word. Not, I fear, for the faint of heart.
Metatron Press (USA) "Metatron Press is a publishing cooperative dedicated to the contemporary arts. Creating books, CDs, performances, online materials, and multimedia works, they combine mindful experimentation with an eye to what has come before and what might come after."
Mille Plateaux (Germany) "Electronic Listening, Digital Processing, Elektroakustik, Experimental, Minimal Electronic, Musique Concrete, Noise."
Mil Records (Mexico) "...here you can find info and future releases of various electronic acts from Mexico."
Mobilization Recordings (USA) "MOBILIZATION is a San Francisco based company representing the works of several of todays most influential NOIZE and EXPERIMENTAL sound artists and performance groups."
Mode Records (USA)
Monika Enterprise (Germany)
Monolake (Germany) "Music with computers since 1995"
MPS (UK) "dedicated to the very best in New Music"
Music For Nations (UK)
Music Now (England) An independent record label specialising in contemporary classical music with British composers & performers, many of whom were associated with the Scratch Orchestra or the Cornelius Cardew Composition Prize, together with world & community musics."
Mutable Music (USA) "
Mutable Music, the label of new music baritone Thomas Buckner, founder of the legendary 1750 Arch Records, will release recordings that promote creative contemporary music, with the hope and desire to expand its audience and repertoire."
Mute (UK) ...punk...industrial...electronic...
Naïve (France)
Nameless Records (UK) "Nameless Records is a...label for musicians and music buyers who are not afraid to stray from the well-worn path."
Neo Ouija (UK)
New Albion (USA) "The kind of music we are seeking is central to our post-classical century: borders have widened; the electronic and digital revolutions have shrunk time and space...".
Newsonic Records (USA)
New World Records (USA) "Our mission is to record the music of American composers that would not otherwise be represented in the catalogues of the commercial recording companies."
Ninja Tune(UK)
No Immortal (USA) "No Immortal is a fever. A delirium that whispers 'time is not forever'. No Beginning. No Ending. No Center. Just Release."
November (UK) "colours of sound"
Ochre Records (UK) "A label of Electronica and Experimental Music!"
Organ of Corti (USA)
Orthlorng Musork "from hidden corners and crevices, microbes of the musical world emerge. beautiful in their sometimes intricate design, sometimes violent simplicity, they are reactions to/parasites of the strivingly antiseptic world that surrounds them. jewels of neglect, they glisten in the hands of the curious, who become unsuspecting hosts for these sounds and the prickly aesthetics they bring with them. these ideas, noises, musorks have picked us to manifest their need to be heard. we have no choice but to share them with you through orthlorng musork, a voice for the uncommon which is far too often swept aside."
Outward Music (USA) "Outward music company [omco] is dedicated to bringing you work of the highest quality from musicians who are creating new relationships between creativity and technology. In addition to our own vinyl and cd releases, we stock an ever growing catalog of our favorites from other labels. In an effort to increase the overall amount of amazing electronic music in the world, we will be integrating gear and software reviews and info, as well as links to related sites."
Pancakes (Hong Kong)
Pax Recordings (USA) " Pax Recordings is a small, San Francisco-based independent label dedicated to creative-improvised and experimental music."
pelicanneck (UK)
Petals (Finland) "Petals is a non-profit association dedicated to the realisation and diffusion of musical projects through the Internet."
Pickled Egg Records (UK)
Plate Lunch (Germany) "sonic explorations from all over the world"
Plug Research (USA) "Plug Research music is none-of-the-above/all-of-the-above music. Plug Research music is disposable/timeless. Plug Research music is experimentally sentimental. Plug Research music. trying to work it out since 1994. "
Poeta Negra (Greece)
Pogus (USA) "Pogus Productions features releases of Electronic, Electro-Acoustic, and Experimental music. Uncompromising, non-commercial, and definitely not for everyone (unfortunately), these releases are geared towards discerning listeners. "
povertech industries (USA) "experimental sound recordings"
Prohibited Records
Pseudoarcana (New Zealand) "Pseudoarcana was established in 2000 to further aid and abet the spread of New Zealand 'noise' and 'experimental' music. Quality music on quality CDRs and cassette. "
Rastacan Records (USA) A label devoted to the kind of improvised music that makes even the term 'cutting edge' seem dull."
raster-noton (Germany) "rastermusic/noton is a label cooperation for electronic music based in germany. in 1999 both artist labels rastermusic and noton.archiv für ton und nichtton merged and the foundation stone for a co-work uniting sound and art design with strong attention to scientific sequences was laid down."
Reckankreuzunsklankewerkzeuge (USA)
Recorded (USA) "A new label for experimental, improvised and ecstatic music"
Relax Records (Greece)
Rephlex "our principal aim is to provide you with the widest possible range of 'high-quality', modern, popular, electronic music.
after listening to our sounds, you won't want to hear anything else ever again!"
Reverberation Records (New Zealand) " Reverberation is run by Stu S. specializing in music from provincial New Zealand and has released many fine singles on lathe cut discs and The Weird Lode a compilation of music from Paeroa."
Rhizome (Australia)
Road Cone (USA) "one of the more innovative and daring labels on the map"
rune grammofon (Norway) "rune grammofon is a new record label dedicated to releasing work by the most adventureous and creative norwegian artists and composers."
Sachimay "Creative/Improvised/New Music"
Sargasso (UK) "take a plunge in the Sea of Sound discover uncharted sonic waters"
~scape (Germany) "~scape represents openness"
Schematic (USA)
Secession Records (Australia) "Secession is a low-cost, self-sustaining electronic and generative music publishing label, maintained solely by its artists and their creative output."
Shambala Records (France)
ShrunkenHeadsRecords (UK)
sigma editions (New Zealand)
sirr.ecords (Portugal)
Slam (UK)
Smalltown Supersound (Norway)
Smekkleysa (Iceland)
Smells Like Records (USA)
Sofa (Norway) "SOFA is a label for European improvised music, and is a spin-off of the Norwegian company NOR-CD ‹ a company that for 10 years has been releasing Norwegian jazz, improvised music and folk music.
"
Solponticello (USA) "We are a record company dedicated to the preservation of individual artistic expression,
an objective more pressing than ever, all in the spirit of healing."
Songline/Tonefeld (USA) Songline/Tonefield specialises in "recordings of singer-songwriters, contemporary composers, improvising musicians and cross-cultural musical collaborations."
Sonore (France) "le mystérieux gala des variétés internationales..."
souRce research recordings (UK) "devoted to experimental sound projects"
Sparkling Beatnik Records "Sparkling Beatnik produces the best of traditional Japanese and adventurous contemporary music, with an emphasis on free improvisation."
Squealer Music (USA) "Welcome to the Magical World of Squealer Music"
Sublingual (USA) "Exploring new territory in jazz, rock and electronic music"
Suction Records (Canada) "Robot music from Canada"
Sulphur Records (UK)
Surgery Records (Australia) "Surgery Records was formed in 1998 with the objective of promoting the wealth of emerging talent in the Adelaide experimental music scene to the rest of Australia and internationally."
SWIM (UK)
Table of the Elements
Tariff Records (USA) "Our commitment is to bring to the world a abundance of new releases in the realm of modern classical music, pure ethnic sound recordings, and the occasional far-out release."
techNOH " web-based electronic music label, releasing exclusive downloads in the .mp3 (MPEG Layer 3) format"
Tellus (USA) A label devoted to new music, audio text/sound poetry, industrial/noise: "Tellus was created in 1983 at the Rum Runner Bar on Canal Street in New York City. Joseph Nechvatal, a visual artist, Claudia Gould, a curator and Carol Parkinson, a composer and staff member of Harvestworks/Studio PASS met to discuss the idea of a magazine on cassette which would feature interesting and challenging sound works. With the advent of the Walkman and the Boom Box, the editors perceived a need for an alternative to radio programming and the commercially available recordings on the market at that time."
The Foundry (UK)
The Perfect Company (USA) TPC "was created in 1998. Located in the beautiful farmlands of Iowa, The Perfect Company is an apartment with a computer in it. Current resources include a CD burner and a full-time employee. Services include the production and distribution of CD-Rs containing music created by the employee or friends of the employee. The employee is Andrew Nease. He also designed this web site."
3 Acre Floor (USA)
Thrill Jockey (USA)
Tigerbeat6 (USA) "#1 record label of all time"
Tomlab "...the trains were singing a song last night..."
Tone Casualties (USA) "Featuring unconventional sound adventures and daring endeavors in new electronic music".
Touch (UK)
trente oiseaux (Germany)
Tresor (Germany)
Tzadik (USA) John Zorn's label "is dedicated to releasing the best in avant garde and experimental music, presenting a worldwide community of contemporary musician-composers who find it difficult or impossible to release their music through more conventional channels. Tzadik believes most of all in the integrity of its artists. What you hear on Tzadik is the artist's vision undiluted."
Ulomusic (Greenland)
Unit Circle Media (USA) "a little slice of the undergorund"
Ventricle (USA) "Sights and sounds of mysterious female vox."
VHF (USA)
Vienna Modern Masters (USA) "Vienna Modern Masters is a nonprofit American company which produces and internationally distributes compact discs of contemporary classical music. Its Music from Six Continents 3000-series, the company's principal focus, presents distinguished orchestral and orchestral-choral music from around the world. Its Portrait, Chamber Music and Solo 2000-series primarily presents unusual new music in smaller forms."
Voiceprint (UK) "The Voiceprint Group of Companies are a group of record labels established in 1990 who have achieved sucess by having a keen ear for neglected classics and a great selection of new music. Altogether the Voiceprint Group catalogue comprises more than 700 albums."
Wichita (USA)
World Edition "As a publisher, Maria de Alvear's intention is to make special works concerning nature, arts and philosophy accessible to the public at large, and to give young avant-garde artists the possibility of expressing themselves."
Warp "...disco!!...purple is the new black...stop dancing..."
Worm Interface Recordings (UK)
Zona (Lithuania) "Lithuanian alternative music site."
TOP OF PAGE digital music festivals labels links performers radio shopSpaces magaZines
links
Achtung Baby! (Russia) "Music hangs above the city, sucks the blood from its arteries, feeds on its drainage waste, on our exhausted dreams, ruined souls; it maintains it's pulse - the pulse of a solitary sick city... Weird aura."
Actions David Coster's monthly calendar of experimental music performances around the world.
AMG All Music Guide "The world's largest and most comprehensive entertainment information database for music, videos, DVDs and video games, All Media Guide offers expert reviews, biographies, ratings, images, titles, credits, and thousands of descriptive categories. "
American Music Center "...building a naional communiy for new American music..."
Anarchic Harmony (USA) "A non-profit, tax-exempt organization that funds and manages research and projects in the fields of music, opera, multimedia, Internet, theatrical architecture and design, social and cultural economics. The bond that informs these is a commitment to non-hierarchical art, work and association."
Archive of Contemporary Music (USA) "The ARChive of Contemporary Music is a not-for-profit archive, music library and research center located in New York City. The ARChive collects, preserves and provides information on the popular music of all cultures and races throughout the world from 1950 to the present. Since the ARChive's founding in 1986 our holdings have grown to over one million sound recordings, making the ARChive the largest popular music collection in the United States. And we are growing daily as over 500 record companies, publishers, and distributors from around the world donate new materials to the ARChive. In addition to sound recordings and publications, the ARChive actively collects all books, magazines, videos, films, photographs, press kits, newspapers clippings, memorabilia and ephemera relating to the history of popular music--over 2 million items. We also maintain an electronic database of 35,000 people working in the music industry and 125,000 sound recordings catalogued at the ARChive."
Arachnaut's Experimental Music Links "This is a collection of music resources on the WWW related to electronic, experimental, and computer music. Topics include software and hardware for electronic music, MIDI, sound files, commercial sites, mailing lists related to sound, and many others."
Ari's Simple List of Record Labels Just what it says: exhaustive is not the word....
Ars Acustica (USA) "Acoustic art is the melting pot of heterogeneous elements: noise, language and music organized by means of electronic techniques into a new, unique genre"
Ars Electronica Centre (Austria)
ArtsElectric "A worldwide calendar for new music and media art."
Australian Music Centre (Australia) "The Australian Music Centre was established in 1974 to facilitate and encourage the performance and understanding of music by Australian composers throughout the world. The Centre has grown to become the leading provider of information, publications and scores relating to Australian music."
Av@ntart Cornelie Müller-Gödecke's page, mostly concerned with Russian improv and jazz. Her enthusiasm is infectious, even for a non-fan like myself.
Baltic Music Information Centre (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) "information on 20th century classical music from Estonia, Lithuania & Latvia"
Bay Area New Music Matt Ingalls' very comprehensive listing of new music resources in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Brainwashed "Brainwashed opened its doors in March of 1996, the idea was to do few websites for bands who either had a lousy website or no presence on the net. Over the last few years, it has grown to encompass many other bands, a few record companies and other features - all of which is outlined in the music section. The name itself was borrowed from a reference of Meat Beat Manifesto, the first band to have a web site here. Brainwashed, however, is not necessarily bands/groups affiliated with MBM by any means (if there's any confusion)."
Centre for Contemporary Music (Russia) The CCM "was formed in 1993 as an independent department of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. The CCM unites musicians of all professions whose interests are concentrated in the field of contemporary music. It plays a leading role in Russia in the development of this art, supporting and encouraging the composition, performance and research of serious music."
Center for Contemporary Music (USA) For over thirty years, the Center for Contemporary Music has been at the forefront of developments emphasizing experimental methods in contemporary music and its allied arts and sciences. In 1966, the San Francisco Tape Music Center (founded in 1961) moved to Mills College and became the Mills Tape Music Center, and later, the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM). Since its inception, this organization has achieved a strong international reputation as one of the leading centers for innovation in music."
Centre for New Zealand Music (New Zealand) "fostering and developing New Zealand music, it's creation, performance, publication, recording and broadcast, by working with and on behalf of New Zealand composers."
Center for the Promotion of Contemporary Composers" "The Center for the Promotion of Contemporary Composers (CPCC) is an Internet-based service organization for composers, dedicated to providing a single, comprehensive resource containing opportunities (competitions, faculty openings, grants, etc.), as well as a platform from which members can disseminate information about their own works and activities."
Contemporary Music Center, Ireland (Éire) "The Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland, documents and promotes contemporary Irish concert music. It is a public archive and resource centre used by performers, composers, teachers, students and members of the public interested in finding out more about music in Ireland."
Contemporary Sound Arts (Australia)
Cortical Foundation (USA) "The Cortical Foundation was founded in 1992 to broaden awareness of this century's innovators in sound and composition. Our primary function is the preservation of sound archives and publication of recordings, with particular emphasis on artists that emerged during the 1960's. Many of these recordings represent new directions in music and have re-defined musical development of the 20th Century."
Disquiet "Reflections on ambient/electronic music, and interviews with the people who make it"
Dordingull (Iceland) The Icelandic hard-core scene.
Dysfunktional "ELe]k[troni]k[art : DyzTr0ni]k[art : Dyzf 0~]K[T;?n *L!zm" Not for epileptics.
Electronic Music Foundation "The place to find out what's happening at the cutting edge of elecronic music and the media arts". An extremely helpful site for those interested in electronic music in all its aspects.
Electronic Musical Instruments "This site charts the development of electronic musical instruments from 1870 to 1990. For the purposes of this project electronic musical instruments are defined as instruments that synthesise sounds from an electronic source. This definition leaves out a whole section of hybrid electronic instruments developed at the end of the last century that used electronics to manipulate or amplify sounds and tape recorders/ Musique Concrete, it has been decided to leave in some non electronic instruments such as the Futurists "Intonarumori" due to their importance in the history of modern music."
Elektronik "music made from wires"
ElectronMedia Web Sites
Estonian Music Information Centre (Estonia)
European Free Improvisation Pages Peter Stubley's comprehensive site, including links to independent labels and musicians working in the field of European Free Improvisation.
Experimental Intermedia (USA) "Experimental Intermedia, based in New York City, was founded in 1968 by Elaine Summers to provide organizational support for artists working in intermedia forms. Throughout its history EI has produced more than 1000 events in its New York lofts. EI has also produced many intermedia events in other cities in the U.S. and other countries. EI now produces 20 events each season; manages its compact disc label, XI; develops and implements international projects in collaboration with like-minded organizations in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and elsewhere."
Experimental Musical Instruments An alternative EMI, this is the site to visit if you're interested in the unusual or the experimental in instrument design or performance. It also covers material on composers such as Harry Partch, Harry Bertoia and Luigi Russolo and provides a healthy set of links and resources.
Experimental Music Catalogue "Founded by Christopher Hobbs in 1969, the Experimental Music Catalogue provided, in a series of anthologies, the best in modern music of the 1960s and 1970s. Experimental Music Catalogue composers included Hobbs, John White, Howard Skempton, Michael Parsons, Cornelius Cardew, Hugh Shrapnel, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars and other members of the British Experimental movement and the Scratch Orchestra, as well as international composers."
Frakture "free improvisation peppered with music"
Frog Peak Music (USA) "Frog Peak Music (A Composers' Collective) is an artist-run organization devoted to publishing and producing experimental and unusual works, distributing artist-produced materials, and in general providing a home for its artists. Frog Peak is dedicated to exploring innovative technologies and aesthetics of publication and distribution, and committed to the idea of availability over promotion." An excellent set of links to many diverse composers and projects - in particular the archive concerned with the experimental composer Johanna Magdalena Beyer (1889-1944), whose work, alongside Cage, Cowell, Harrison and the like has almost been completely forgotten.
Futuresonic (USA) "futuresonic is an open forum for the exploration of horizons in sound, providing a focus for new initiatives and opening hybrid spaces for sonic and visual pleasure. futuresonic aims to develop novel perspectives on sonic art through both theory and practice, with a dual interest in promoting original work and exploring innovative configurations of sound, artist and audience."
Fylkingen (Sweden) "Fylkingen is a society, consisting primarily of practicing artists, devoted to the production and promotion of new music and intermedia art. Since its foundation in 1933, initially as a chamber music society, Fylkingen has been committed to experimental, new and unestablished forms of contemporary arts. The very first concerts of electroacoustic music in Sweden were arranged by Fylkingen in the early 1950's, and further radicalization occurred during the 1960's with the happenings, musical theatres and text-sound compositions prominent on the society's programme. Since then Fylkingen has regularly presented intermedia art and is the only forum in Sweden."
gigabrother"We work in the utopian idea that people will be more enslaved and misused than ever in the future. full of hope that the new born children will suffer original pains, and never find a way of deliverance. we all work hard and pray for it."
Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseilles (France) "Le Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseille, fondé en 1969, est un studio de composition et un centre musical de création et de production. Il accueille des compositeurs français ou étrangers et organise une saison de concerts de musiques du XXe siècle. Il est dirigé par Georges Boeuf et Raphaël de Vivo."
Hertz Lion "It's been the primary goal to provide no small amount of information about experimental music - which has been sorely lacking in supply on the Internet. This includes all of the attendant greay areas that are so often debated. It's been the goal to serve as a definitive portal to information on resources which you'll exploit. Information about a half-heard name half-understood in a club or at the back of of a half-held memory. Clubs, venues and concert halls. Broadcasts, webcasts and simulcasts. Labels that defy labels. Culture in a microscope."
Hungarian Music Information Centre (Hungary)
Hyperreal "Hyperreal is a resource and a home on the Internet for information and activies surrounding the memes of music, dance, art, altered states of consciousness, and experimental ways of expressing those memes over the wires. Information like this doesn't want to be free, it NEEDS to be free, and it needs a place to be expressed independent of any overriding responsibility to a larger institution."
Iceland Music Information Centre (Iceland) "The main objective of ITM is to keep record of all types of Icelandic contemporary music and promote it. ITM also provides information about Icelandic music life and musicians, promotes Icelandic music both in Iceland and abroad, and publishes and records music."
Improvised Music from Japan Self-explanatory name for a good set of links to Japanese improvisors.
Insine "We are insine. We are here for music that goes beyond the borders of commercialization, laziness and ignorance. Music where the concept is often more about sound than notes, sometimes more about noise than sounds....We are here to give this music a natural and creative meeting point - a livingroom for cutting edge music."
International Alliance for Women in Music "The International Alliance for Women in Music is devoted to fulfilling the purposes of the three organizations it unites. Created on January 1, 1995 through the uniting of the International Congress on Women in Music, the American Women Composers and the International League of Women Composers, the International Alliance for Women in Music celebrates the contributions of all women musicians, past, present and future."
International Association of Music Information Centres "International Association of Music Information Centres is a world-wide network of organisations promoting new music. IAMIC has forty members in thirty-six countries (1999). Each Music Information Centre is responsible for documenting and promoting the music of its own country or region, as well as co-operating internationally with other centres and international organisations on issues of common concern."
International Documentation of Electroacoustic Music Self-explanatory title for an excellent resource on the subject.
Internet Resources for Twentieth Century Music (USA)
Japan and New Zealand Noise "...a random introductory guide..."
Klang "Since 1994, Klang has introduced the world to beautiful and adventurous sounds from the likes of Pelt, the Donald Miller Trio, rhBand, Gospel Midgets, and more. Take a load off, step inside and stay a while as we tell you about where we've been, what we've accomplished, and what comes next."
Kreiva Muzika (Lithuania) The Lithuanian experimental music scene: "experimental noise avantgarde industrial electronic ambient contemporary"
Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Center (Lithuania) "Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre was established in 1995 on the initiative of the Lithuanian Composers' Union. The aim of the Centre - to promote the music of Lithuanian composers in Lithuania and abroad."
Living Room "A home for experimental musicians, performance and multimedia artists, and all other persons involved nurturing in creative or artistic endeavors."
London Musicians Collective (UK) The LMC "is a charity and membership organization devoted to contemporary music. It promotes improvised and experimental music via concerts and an annual festival; undertakes musical workshops; and twice-yearly publishes the magazine and CD package 'Resonance'."
Motion "interactive services for new music"
Music From Japan "Founded by Naoyuki Miura, Music From Japan is now in its third decade of promoting music by contemporary Japanese composers through performances by American and Japanese musicians. The New York-based non-profit organization, in cooperation with The Japan Federation of Composers, has presented concerts throughout the Americas and Japan, introducing over 300 works, including 36 world premieres, 23 of them commissioned by MFJ."
Nederlands Elektro-Akoestisch Repertoirecentrum "The centre for Dutch electro-acoustic music, NEAR was established by Donemus and Gaudeamus in order to open Dutch electronic music to the public, both national and international. NEAR is a publishing imprint of MuziekGroep Nederland."
Net New Music "A listing of contemporary music www pages with midi and/or digital audio files." Very comprehensive links page, full of composers, performers and further links.
New Music Articles "NMA Publications (New Music Articles) was established in 1982 with the aim of encouraging musicians, composers and sound artists to write about their work as a means of generating public debate. "
New Music Links Thomas Moore's list of composers and links to other new music sites is the most extensive I have encountered. A mustsee.
New Music Site Seeing Tour "Most of the links here are to sites by or for composers and performers who are serious about the music they make despite the real commercial challenges they face. Some of the work might be called classical, some might be called electronic, some of it is completely composed before performance, some of it is entirely improvised, much of it uses uncommon techniques or forms, some of it may not resemble anything you've ever thought of as music before. I hope that you find some things here that will be useful to you, whatever your present interests in music may be."
Noise Bar "In a small back room on East 13th St. in New York City, Jim thinks about life, politics, and music. Finally, looking to share his thoughts with others in the community, he looks in the calendar to see if anything exciting is going on tonight. Overwhelmed by the listings in the calendar and unable to make a decision he heads for the local bar where he knows he'll find good conversation, live music and good food. Upon arriving Jim sees a couple of composers that he knows. They are in, what seems like, a very deep conversation. Deciding not to get involved he looks back and recognizes several members of the Noise Action Coalition sitting at the corner table. Realizing that he forgot about this weeks meeting he walks back and joins them."
Other Minds Other Minds is "dedicated to new and unusual music in all its forms" and covers artists as diverse as Charles Amirkhanian, Conlon Nancarrow and Pandit Pran Nath. Recommended.
Outward Music Company OMCO is "dedicated to bringing you work of the highest quality from musicians who are creating new relationships between creativity and technology. In addition to our own vinyl and cd releases, we stock an ever growing catalog of our favorites from other labels."
Paul's Page "Music is the theme - these links may appeal to you if you're interested in buying music, releasing music, or discovering more about New Zealand music ."
pHinnweb (Finland) The Finnish techno and experimental scene in detail.
pinknoises.com "The one-stop web resource on women + electronic music"
Popular Guide to Unpopular Music Precisely.
Post Everything news, views, retail therapy, chat...everything...
Princeton Sound Kitchen
quintet.net "quintet.net is an interactive Internet performance environment invented and developed by composer and computer musician Georg Hajdu. It enables up to five performers to play music over the Internet under the control of a "conductor." The environment, which was programmed for the Apple Macintosh platform using the graphical programming language MAX consists of four components: a Server, a Client, a Conductor and a Listener; the latter component enables the Internet audience to follow the performance."
Rare Music Club "There's a lot of brilliant composers and musicians working outside of the mainstream who are dedicated to contemporary classical, contemporary jazz/improvisation and, the hardest to categorise, roots/ethnic/folk and yet get few opportunities in the UK to showcase their exceptional talents. So why not have a club with an inclusive musical policy that embraces all three genres on the same bill? This RMC concept was the brainchild of Keith Tippett who has been at the forefront of new music and jazz in Europe for the last thirty years. Whether as educator, composer or performer Keith is guaranteed to bring infectious passion and creativity to every project, however large or small"
Re-lab (Latvia)
Russian and NIS Music Resources From traditional Armenian music, via country music from Smolensk, right through to Uzbekistani progressive rock, this is undoubtedly the best place on the web for all aspects of music from Russia and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. Alternative and experimental music seems to be very well represented, in particular that from Russia and the Baltic states. See also Tamizdat.
San Diego New Music (USA) "San Diego New Music is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of twentieth and twenty-first century music. In addition to producing the "Noise at the Library" concert series at the Athenaeum in La Jolla, we also publish the quarterly San Diego New Music Newsletter, a free guide to local contemporary music events."
Scottish Music Information Centre (Scotland/UK)
Skratchcon "Turntable News Network"
Secret Museum of the Air
Sequenza21 "The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly....The goal of this site is a simple one - to promote contemporary classical music and its creators. Our approach is that of music lovers who are catholic and apolitical in our tastes. We embrace all serious modern music and aim to do so without favoring one school or type of music over another. If we have a bias, it is toward living, working composers because they are the dedicated people who don't get enough attention or opportunities to have their music heard or recorded."
sfSound (USA) "a collection of people and resources dedicated to the creation, promotion, and support
of performances of creative music and new sonic art in the San Francisco Bay Area."
Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (USA) "SEAMUS is a non-profit national organization of composers, performers, and teachers of electro-acoustic music representing every part of the country and virtually every musical style."
Society for the Promotion of New Music (UK) "From contemporary, jazz, classical and popular music to that written for film, dance and other creative media, SPNM is one of the main advocates of new music in Britain today."
Sonic Arts Network (UK) "Sonic Arts Network is the UK's national association of composers, performers, teachers and others interested in the creative use of technology in the composition and performance of music. Sonic Arts Network acts as a concert, education and information resource with members worldwide. We aim to raise awareness and innovate new approaches to sonic art by providing information and opportunity across the UK."
Sonloco Record Reviews (Sweden) "On this page Ingvar Loco Nordin and musicologist Guido Zeccola - the independent team at Sonoloco - will publish record reviews. Any kind of music may be reviewed, as long as it is original and honest, and has it's very own artistic integrity." This page also has interesting links to other labels and performers.
Soundician "Remember, sometimes it's better to miss a beat - than to miss the point!"
SoundList (Canada) "Experimental Music, Free Improvisation, Sound Art. SoundList is an E-mailing list devoted to announcements of free-improvisation, experimental music and sound art events in the Toronto area. "
Sound Sculpture Ken Overton's expanding source of sound sculpture links.
Staalplaat (The Netherlands) "Staalplaat is a forum for soundartists, an organisation network with a music label, an e-zine, a publishing house, a radio program, an audio-galerie, shop, mail order and distribution company, based in Amsterdam and Berlin."
Tamizdat Tamizdat "is a cooperative project, joining leading independent labels and artists from Central and Eastern Europe". Not only does Tamizdat claim to be the biggest source of independent musics from this area, not only is it committed to artistic and academic exchange with organizations in the west (principally in New York), but it's also involved in preparing an archive of dissident recordings made during the Communist era.
The Improvisor "the the improvisor is a resource for musicians & composers of free improvisation, to share music, ideas, articles, reviews, scores, and links to interesting sites...your gig dates... information... travel journals, poetry, inspirations and more..."
Trummerflora The site for information on "improvised and experimental music in San Diego".
23five "23five Incorporated is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and increased awareness of sound works in the public arena, and to the support and education of artists working with and discussing the medium of sound."
Ubuweb Sound Poetry Ubuweb is a site specialising in visual, concrete and sound poetry. The sound poetry section is, like the others, exceptional and extensive. A wonderful resource.
whi music Phil Hargreaves' site is "dedicated to promoting the power and beauty of improvised and experimental music."
World Forum for Acoustic Ecology The World Forum for Acoustic-Ecology (WFAE), founded in 1993, is an international association of affiliated organizations, and individuals, who share a common concern with the state of the world soundscape as an ecologically balanced entity. Our members represent an interdisciplinary profession engaged in the study of the scientific, social, and cultural aspects of natural and human made sound environments."
Zu Casa Described as a "home for experimental art, music and video", this is a truly exhaustive site of information, covering a far wider sphere (including video, art, performance) than this page ever could. It provides a good overview of the more formal end of experimentation - not much wacked-out noise here, for instance - and is a fine place to start an adventure.
TOP OF PAGE digital music festivals labels links performers radio shopSpaces magaZines
performers
Acid Mothers Temple "Soul Collective" (Japan) "Collective led by Kawabata Makoto. There are currently around 30 members, famous and unknown, musicians, artist, dancers, farmers etc. In order to fellow and document their multifarious activities, in 1998 the Acid Mothers Temple family record label was set up. The Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. group is just one part of collective's activities."
Mary Beth Ackerley A very interesting composer, trained in mathematics and psychiatry, whose music reflects her fascination in patterns, tunings and the influence of music upon the spiritual life.
John Luther Adams (USA) "For the past twenty-five years, composer John Luther Adams has made his home in the boreal forest near Fairbanks, Alaska. From there, he has created a unique musical world, grounded in the elemental landscapes and indigenous cultures of the North."
Beth Anderson (USA) "... a critically acclaimed composer of new romantic music, text-sound works, and musical theater."
Laurie Anderson (USA)
Koji Asano (Japan)
Larry Austin (USA) American composer of traditional and experimental music.
Ana-Maria Avram (Rumania/France) "composer, conductor, pianist"
Ellen Band (USA) "Ellen Band, a self-described 'hunter and gatherer of sounds', creates sound and music pieces for performance and concert settings, installation, culture and tape."
battery9 (South Africa) "Difficult to confine to a specific genre, battery 9 is Industrial-sounding, influenced by the sounds and the rhythms of industry. The music also reflects influences of hip-hop, dub, and hard techno music. "
Eve Beglarian (USA)
Justin Bennett (The Netherlands) British Dutch-based soundscape artist.
Bertoia Studios (USA) This is the site representing the work of the late sound sculpture Harry Bertoia. Slight but interesting and clearly a labor of love by the artist's son.
Tom Bickley (USA) "Tom Bickley is a composer/performer and teacher who uses recorders, other early European wind instruments, voice, electronics and found sounds to encourage creativity in listeners and performers."
Big Block 454 (UK) "A semi-amorphous post-modern/Situationist neo-dada musical compositional construct from Manchester, England".
Biosphere (Norway)
Boards of Canada (UK)
Brave New Works (USA) "We are dedicated to presenting, promoting and performing Contemporary Classical music for a broad audience, without compromising artistic integrity."
Kitty Brazelton (USA)
Bennett C Brecht (USA) Brecht is a composer who, if his website is to be believed, bears a passing resemblance to Richard Wagner. Ah well, his work sounds interesting enough, encompassing electronics, computer techniques and sound sculpture check out the sound files too!
British Composers Project (England) "British Composers Project ...initially featured fifty composers who have been associated with the Cornelius Cardew Composition Prize, now broadening its scope and developing." This is an excellent database for those interested in the state of contemporary music in Britain.
Brenton Broadstock (Australia)
Gavin Bryars (UK) Michael Ondaatje writes that "the music of Gavin Bryars falls under no category. It is mongrel, full of sensuality and wit and is deeply moving. He is one of the few composers who can put slapstick and primal emotion alongside each other. He allows you to witness new wonders in the sounds around you by approaching them from a completely new angle. With a third ear maybe. . ."
Warren Burt (Australia)
John Cage "John Cage was an American composer, Zen buddhist, and mushroom eater. He was also a writer: this site is about his paragraph-long stories -- anecdotes, thoughts, and jokes. As a lecture, or as an accompaniment to a Merce Cunningham dance, he would read them aloud, speaking quickly or slowly as the stories required so that one story was read per minute. This site archives 186 of those stories. Each story is spaced out, as if it was being read aloud, to fill a fixed area. If you like, you can also read them aloud at a rate of one a minute."
Sarah Cahill (USA) "Sarah Cahill is a pianist specializing in new American music and works from the American experimental tradition. She is also host of a weekly music program on KPFA, and has written about music for a wide variety of publications."
Chad Uunk (UK) Oxford-based experimental music duo.
Rhys Chatham "Rhys Chatham is a composer / performer from New York City now living in Paris known for rock-influenced compositions such as Guitar Trio (1977) to An Angel Moves Too Fast To See (1989) for 100 electric guitars, with a lot of other electric music in between. Rhys has recently been making waves in Europe as a trumpet player. He sold his electric guitar a while back and picked up a trumpet, which he puts through all the fuzz & distortion boxes that were left over from his noisy guitar playing days."
James Coleman (USA) "Thereminist James Coleman is an active member of Boston's Experimental & Improvised music community, performing regularly in a variety of ensembles & contexts locally & on the east coast of America."
Comma (USA) Comma is "...an ensemble specializing in music that involves improvisation and mindfulness practices. Their repertory includes newly composed musical works, performance poetry, chant from various early traditions, and group improvisations. Techniques include many extended uses of the voice as well as electro-acoustic environments."
Darren Copeland (Canada) "Darren Copeland is a soundscape composer, radio artist, sound designer and concert producer."
George Crumb (USA)
Tina Davidson (USA) "Tina Davidson is the very model of a post minimalist composer. Her music bespeaks a real artistic personality. What distinguishes this music most for me is the manner in which Davidson shapes the telling details within the texture. She has a gift to listen very closely to the microscopic moments in her music and imbue them with real individuality and substance."
Deadushki (Russia) "Deadushki can be interpreted many ways depending on one s mood - an almost like the St. Petersburg art collective Mitki s term Smer-tushki as well as something ordinarily geriatric as dedushki. However, the ultramodern sound of their debut disc The Art of Stone Statues, with its topically expressive liner notes, confirms that they are anything but ready to sit idly on a couch or play chess on bench in the gardens of Catherine the Great."
Maria de Alvear (Spain/Germany) "The Spanish-German composer of avant-garde music is a well-known figure in the New Music scene. Her compositions have been played world-wide in the major New Music forums. Because of her constant travels, Maria de Alvear has met many people from many different countries and cultures all around the world. She appreciates all cultures that live in harmony and respect with nature and has a great respect for the cultures with an ancient, spiritually developed wisdom and understanding, things that have been almost lost in European cultures. Maria de Alvear's aim is to make the people aware about the fruitfull and joyful dialog one can have with nature, increasing and spreading respect for the wealth of this valuable knowledge."
Christopher DeLaurenti (USA) A wacky website outlining DeLaurenti's "rabble-rousing musical activities". Excellent links pages.
Paul DeMarinis (USA) Paul de Marinis has been working in the field of multimedia electronic art since 1971.
Deep Listening Band "Deep listening is listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what one is doing. Such listening involves the sounds of daily life of nature of one's own thoughts as well as musical sounds". The Deep Listening Band is part of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation, which seeks to promote the work and ideas of pioneering electronic composer and accordionist Pauline Oliveros.
Paul Dresher (USA) "Paul Dresher is a notable California post-minimalist composer/guitarist/keyboard player based in San Francisco. His works include ensemble pieces, music theater works, electro-acoustic compositions, and works written for live solo performer (usually himself on electric guitar) and a live tape looping system."
Arnold Dreyblatt (USA/Germany) American composer and installation artist. His website contains audio files, articles and extensive biographical details.
Stephen Drury (USA) "...A champion of twentieth-century music, Drury's performances of music ranging from the piano sonatas of Charles Ives to works by John Cage and Gyöaut;rgy Ligeti have received the highest critical acclaim...."
William Duckworth (USA) "William Duckworth is a composer of over 100 works. His Time Curve Preludes for piano and Southern Harmony for a cappella chorus define the postminimalist style, of which he is the founder."
Iancu Dumitrescu (Rumania/France) "The great experimental composer..."
Tan Dun (China/USA) "The vibrant presence of both East and West within Tan Dun has created a unique sound world, always personal, always authentic. Every part of Tan Dun's music is violent as a burst of human blood, yet full of grace, a voice of the soul [....] he is one of the most outstanding composers today."
Duo 46 (USA) "a violin and guitar ensemble specializing in performing and collaborating with composers to create new chamber music with guitar."
Dworzec (Australia) Melbourne-based experimental jazz-drone-noise band.
Halim El-Dabh (Egypt/USA) "Halim El-Dabh is a genuine piece of music history. His work has been featured everywhere from prestigious cathedrals and recital halls to the Giza Pyramids; from major record labels to the background of a James Bond film." He was also one of the pioneers of electronic music during the 1950s....
ENDICHE VIS.SAT (Lithuania) "We are ENDICHE VIS.SAT, an Experimental Music Band from Eastern Europe, known for its highly inventive and multi-stylistic musical ventures, stunning stage productions and as an organizer of countless Actions, both spontaneous and planned. The band boasts six internationally released albums, and gives frequent concerts in various countries. Five core members make up the nucleus of the band."
Brian Eno (UK) "serving your eno needs with impunity since 01993"
Ensemble Noir (Canada) "
Ensemble Noir is a Toronto based ensemble whose specialty is contemporary or new music, especially the music of composers of African descent. Through our concerts and educational initiatives, we strive to create greater awareness for the music of our time. Our approach to music is inclusive, embracing the many divergent facets of the multicultural world we live in."
Karlheinz Essl (Austria) Essl is a composer of both electronic and conventional musics. His website contains very good links to other sites.
John Fahey (USA) Writings by and about this American gutarist.
Neil Feather (USA) "Neil Feather is a pure aberration, no one could have guessed him. After the initial shock of his sensibility wears off, there is a deeper disturbance, as one realizes that his work really DOESN'T relate to something else you have seen or heard. It is deep individuality. Between the novelty and power of his innovations (his use of forced contrary motion, Doppler-shifts, and standing waves within instruments to name just a few) to the goofy darkness of his aesthetic, there is a strange hatch into a land of sublime, divine music that has no choice but to be itself. Neil Feather is a true genius."
Morton Feldman (USA) Loads of Feldman-related material in this very fine site.
Bill Fontana (USA) "Bill Fontana is an American artist internationally known for his experimental work in sound. He shares with the small group of artists who work in the medium an interest in transforming the aural environment. He is unique, however, in employing exclusively ambient, rather than electronic, sound . Fontana regards the physical environment as a living source of musical information, with aesthetic and evocative qualities that can conjure up visual imagery."
Fred Frith (UK/USA) "Fred Frith, composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist, has situated himself for more than thirty years in the area where rock music and new music meet. "
Larry Gaab (USA) "Instrumental music with elements of dark ambient, contemporary classical, film,
meditative, and visionary. "
Diamanda Galás (USA) "Diamanda Galás, possessor of a four octave vocal range and an urgent need to awake the morally dead or sleeping, has gleaned many epithets from those wishing to understand or decry her uniquely important body of work. 'Bride of Satan', 'Diva of Disease', 'Black Rose of the Avant Garde' are but a few. 'I'm not interested in convincing people like that that I'm not a sinner,' she has said of her Right-wing, reactionary critics. 'I'm very glad that they think that. I consider it a mark of absolute flattery, of absolute respect. And then I can see that the only resolution is to say, "If you think I wear the cloak of filth, then let me tell you baby, I wear it real good."' "
Kyle Gann (USA) "The purpose of this page is to acquaint the reader with the music and writings of Kyle Gann, composer, musicologist, and music critic. Gann's music uses complex but hard-driving and drum-driven tempo structures developed from his study of Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo Indian music, as well as from his analysis of the complete works of Conlon Nancarrow. Through his work as a critic, author, and teacher, he has worked to redefine the premises of an American classical music quite distinct from, and unindebted to, European tradition. He is the leading authority on the musics of Nancarrow, La Monte Young, and many younger American composers."
Phil Gelb (USA) Shakuhachi player who has worked with the likes of Pauline Oliveros, George Lewis and Chris Brown and whose music ranges in style from improvised to jazz to traditional.
Peter Gena (USA) "...composer, holds a Ph.D. in music composition from the State University of New York at Buffalo where he studied with Morton Feldman and Lejaren Hiller. His compositions of various media, including instrumental, electronic and computer-generated, have been presented extensively in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia."
Philip Glass (USA) "Philip Glass on the web."
Ken Gregory (Canada) "Ken Gregory is an audio artist who is interested in the inside/out of sound in all its various forms."
Bernhard Günter (Germany) Composer of extraordinary, barely audible musics. See also Günter's own label Trente Oiseaux.
Georg Hadju (Germany) "Georg Hajdu was born in 1960 in Göttingen, Germany to Hungarian-Jewish parents who fled their country during the uprising in 1956. His childhood and youth were affected by the scientific interests of his physicist father and the artistic inclinations of the maternal lineage. The Israeli composer André Hajdu is one of his closest relatives. It’s these various and contrasting influences that shaped Georg Hajdu’s compositional œuvre which ranges from acoustic works to medial realizations that defy conventional notation."
Richard Hell
David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir (USA) "David Hykes and his collaborators of the Harmonic Choir, true pioneers in the sacred world music revival, are the first to have explored deeply new possibilities for vocal music based on harmonics. Their work anticipates the current wave of interest in 'Chant' and 'throat-singing' by some twenty years, and has greatly contributed to the renewed awareness of these traditions." If you're interested in this, you should maybe also check out the Tuvan Throat Singing page, which includes links to other related sites - including an article in Latin (with English translation!) by a Finnish khöömi (throat singing) expert.
Illusion of Safety "Illusion Of Safety intrepidly charts the terra incognita where sound, silence, noise and music intersect. Using conventional instruments, sound generating devices and random objects, IOS hews sonic sculptures that deliberately provoke, mesmerize and even affront listeners. "
Matt Ingalls (USA) "composer - clarinetist - music software developer": a very interesting site on the San Francisco new music scene.
Invention Ensemble (UK)"invention ensemble are a Scottish contemporary music group, formed in November 1997 with the intention of bringing new and challenging music to an unsuspecting public. We hope that through our performances, listeners will discover that there can be more to contemporary music than a paralysed posterior, a glum-faced composer, and frequently un-listenable music."
David Jaffe "Jaffe's musical language is at once personal and audacious, with aesthetic roots in the music of Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, and Henry Brant. It embraces heterogeneity and draws on a vast range of musical resourcesfrom folk music to jazz to popular musicto create complex systems of juxtaposition and hybridization, in which several highly-contrasting aspects of experience mix to produce something that is both new and hauntingly-familiar. This "maximalist" approach extends to extra-musical material as well; with elements ranging from birdsong to politics and social justice." Also contains an excellent links page.
Scot Jenerik (USA) "Scot Jenerik is a conceptual artist who primarily works with the mediums of sound, fire, performance and instrument building. He has performed and lectured extensively in the United States, Europe and Japan, and has produced multiple internationally distributed audio and video works."
Jliat (England) "O hear ye this, all ye people: ponder it with your ears, all ye that dwell in the world; High and low, rich and poor : one with another. My mouth shall speak of wisdom : and my heart shall muse of understanding. I will incline mine ear to the parable : and shew my dark speech upon the harp. "
Alex Keller (USA) "I've been involved in creating experimental music and sound art since 1988, and have worked as sound designer, composer, artist, and technician."
John Kenny "Imagine the trombonist's frustration: no established repertoire, no legacy from the giants of western music. For three centuries the instrument has been consigned to the back of the orchestra, to heavy-weight padding and buffoonery. To escape that stigma the trombonist must interest himself in extremes; the very old, the very new, jazz and areas where the natural theatricality of the instrument is valued. I am continually searching for new ways of using the trombone and for interesting musicians to perform with, and to that end I have developed duo partnerships with piano, percussion, organ and electronics in an attempt to reveal different facets of the instrument. Once you start looking the possibilities are endless."
King Ly Chee (Hong Kong) "We as a band, King Ly Chee, have made it our purpose and mission to educate those around us on the culture and idea of a movement called punk rock, which includes hardcore as well. Punk rock and hardcore is an attitude and a lifestyle based on challenging what is the normal way of thought within society. As we can all witness in Hong Kong, the majority of Hong Kongs residents are apathetic to what is going on around them. Most of Hong Kong is simply unconcerned about the problems of our city. Instead of ignoring the problem, people should address important issues and try to fix it in some way."
Klangstorm (UK) "musicandartjoinedatthehiptomakeushappytomakeussadtobringonthoseemotionsweallneedbut- sooftenneglectintimesofboredomandintimesoffreedom.Klangstormbeginthehealingprocess..."
Thomas Köner (Germany) "Making the inaudible audible."
Kronos Quartet (USA) "Since its inception in 1973, the Kronos Quartet has emerged as a leading voice for new work. Combining a unique musical vision with a fearless dedication to experimentation, Kronos has assembled a body of work unparalleled in its range and scope of expression, and in the process, has captured the attention of audiences worldwide."
Laibach (Slovenia) A curious band attached to the Ljubljana-based organization Neue Slowenische Kunst "Upon its founding in 1980 Laibach prepared in Trbovlje its first multimedia project "Red Districts (Rdeci revirji)", designed to challenge the striking contradictions of the political structure of the town at that time. The project was banned before it opened, which prevented the first public appearance of the group, though not the angry media response which followed."
Richard Lainhart (USA)
Paul Lansky (USA) Lansky is a composer who works with electronics and the human voice. His site is good for its various samples and mp3 downloads of his work, as well as for its extensive coverage of reviews and interviews.
Elodie Lauten (USA) "... a pioneer, one of the leaders of the postminimalist movement."
Steve Law (Australia) Electro-acoustic composer.
Daniel Lentz (USA) "I believe that music should be beautiful. Or, at the very least, that musicians should strive to make beautiful music. Music doesn't have to be pretty to be beautiful. And, of course, there is a lot of pretty music that is far from beauty."
Francisco López (Spain) "absolute concrète music"
Tod Machover (USA) Machover "has been highly praised for music that boldly breaks traditional artistic and cultural boundaries, offering a unique and innovative synthesis of acoustic and electronic sound...".
Mandible (USA) "Mandible is a pretentious experimental band from Columbia, SC. We attempt a number of different styles (e.g., indie rock, noise, freeform improv, performance art, etc.) and abuse our instruments in various ways in order to capture new sounds and textures."
Bunita Marcus (USA) Marcus was a friend and one-time student of the great Morton Feldman and her site contains much material about her relationship with him. There's also much about her own music and about her work as a healer.
Miya Masaoka (USA/Japan) Miya Masaoka is a kotoist and composer who "works simultaneously in the varied musical worlds of jazz, western classical music, electronic music, traditional Japanese music and free improvisation...". Her site is full of material on her and her work, but contains also information on the San Francisco Gagaku Society and on her koto-MIDI interface.
MELA (USA) "The name MELA references the Sanskrit word mela, which has the meanings of consonance, harmonizing, combining, gathering together, and is etymologically related to milana, the verb: to tune. In addition, MELA forms the acronym for Music Eternal Light Art." MELA is the site for information on the work of the kirana singer Pandit Pran Nath, light-artist Marian Zazeela and the composers Terry Jennings, Angus MacLise, Richard Maxfield and LaMonte Young.
Mindscapes (Australia) "A group of artists in Brisbane who create art, sound and film events...continually expanding and dissolving/perpetually under construction".
Mark Mitchell (Australia) "An exciting blend of aural treats and sci-fi beats that will make you and your friends stand up and shout...Encore!" Quite.
Dary John Mizelle (USA) "The music of Dary John Mizelle has for too long been underground. His steadfast individuality has no doubt served the integrity of his music, but it is time for his work to receive a broader dissemination. What we hear in his considerable output of over 300 compositions is music of protean diversity, but unmistakbly his own. It embraces western and eastern traditions, and acoustic and electronic instruments, with an ease and purity that makes it all seem natural. Mizelle's roots are many, and have served him well in forging his own voice. In the western composer in him, there are shades of Bartok, Messiaen, and Xenakis. His works are designed with a careful sale of macro- and micro-structure, with large-scale and internal rhythms derived from eastern music and American jazz, and with a mathematical exactitude and concern for detail. Yet within such careful archetecture, Mizelle often gives his performers room to move about or improvise, and to establish their own sense of space and time. Mizelle takes care to see that the complexity and structure of his music mirrors the complexity and structure of nature: elegance of design co-exists with fortuity."
MODUS (Lithuania) "MODUS is an ascetic image, alegoric lyrics and diverse eletronic/industrial music from atmospheric darkenings to straighter mechanic beats."
Meredith Monk (USA) "is a composer, singer, filmmaker, choreographer and director. A pioneer in what is now called "extended vocal technique" and "interdisciplinary performance," she is the fourth generation singer in her family. Since graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in 1964, she has created more than 100 works. During a career that spans more than 30 years she has been acclaimed by audiences and critics as a major creative force in the performing arts."
Beata Moon (USA)
Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. (USA) MMPMC "was formed in 1969 in Ithaca, NY as an ensemble dedicated to performing music not heard in the Ithaca area. We performed pieces by Robert Ashley, John Cage, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich and others. Most of those composers were unknown then. We were the first group to play music of Philip Glass outside his own ensemble. In less than a year, through our friendship with Robert Moog, we developed into a live synthesizer ensemble, proabably the first one in the world."
Raphael Mostel (USA) "one of New York's most popular and original composers."
Gordon Mumma (USA)
Sainkho Namtchylak (Tuva) "Sainkho Namtchylak is a wanderer between the worlds....She was a member of the national ensemble of Tuva, left the remote republic in the south of Siberia and lived in Moscow. There she met jazz musicians and started a new career in the west. She lived in Vienna, Berlin and Moscow, but she never forgot her homecountry. Every year she invited western musicians to perform in Kyzyl and to learn about her country, her culture and her music."
Ben Neill (USA)
Michael Nyman (UK)
Aki Onda "Born in 1967. Onda formed Audio Sports with Eye Yamatsuka of the Boredoms and Nobukazu Takemura in 1990. In 1992, they documented their unique hip-hop based sound with the debut album Era of Glittering Gas which shocked the Japanese music scene. Thereafter, Audio Sports became Onda's solo project yet still included contributions from other musicians. "
Yoko Ono The Yoko Ono website, unofficial but excellent.
Cecilie Ore A very fine Norwegian composer, Ore "frequently uses the computer as a compositional tool, and her music has a distinctly modernistic flavour due to its strict constructivism and austere sonorous universe."
Jim O'Rourke (USA) A pretty complete discography.
Bob Ostertag (USA)
Harry Partch (USA) Harry Partch, who died in 1974, is famous mainly for the extraordinary instruments he built and for his use of a precise, multi-toned scale in his work. A genius and an eccentric figure in the tradition of Cage, Cowell and Ives.
(USA) Composer and harpist specialising in extended techniqes, digital processing and improvisation.
P-ARTWEB (Belgium) A small site set up by Beligian sound artist P-ART, to showcase his artistic influences. Thirteen sound artists, performers and composers (all but two based in Europe) are profiled here with links to their personal sites.
Paul Dresher Ensemble" (USA) "The Paul Dresher Ensemble is a contemporary performing ensemble with two main facets: one, it commissions, produces and tours works of collaboratively created opera and experimental theater; and two, it performs as the Electro-Acoustic Band the work of a diverse range of contemporary composers on an instrumentation combining traditional acoustic and contemporary electronic instruments. "
Sarah Peebles Sarah Peebles "is a composer, performer, radio producer and broadcaster, based in Toronto, Canada. Exploring alternate performance settings, such as museums, bamboo groves, temples and parks, Peebles' work also encompasses 'comprovisation', performance art and installation work, as well as collaborations with a variey of artists from many genres. Her current work with computer-assisted performance is based on collections of sampled sounds (mostly gathered by herself) arranged in Sample Cell programme, and further modified by Max programming, accessed in real-time improvised and composed performance."
Morris Pert (Scotland)
Emanuel Dimas De Melo Pimenta (Portugal) EDMP is an "architect, urban planner and composer of contemporary music using Virtual Reality and cyberspace technologies to develope these fields of expertise." Hence the exceedingly interesting and wide-ranging website.
Pimmon (Australia) A fine exponent of digital, glitsch 'n' sample music .
Kimmo Pohjonen (Finland) Experimental accordianist.
Randy Raine-Reusch (Canada) "Randy Raine-Reusch is an improvisationally based composer / concert-artist specializing in New and Experimental Music for world instruments. An innovator interested in extending the boundaries of music, he has created distinct new performance styles on a number of instruments including Chinese guzheng (23-string zither), Japanese ichigenkin (1-string zither), and the Thai khaen (16-reed bamboo mouth organ)."
Riku (South Africa) "Riku La¨tti is a consumer of wine and wine related products, but not exclusively so. He is more than 6 feet tall and was able to read and write from a relatively young age. His friends know him well. Hy plays guitar, piano sometimes and attempts to play a saxophone from time to time."
Terry Riley (USA)
Steve Roden (USA) "steve roden is a visual and sound artist from los angeles. his work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, film/video, and sound. the works are a combination of conceptual strategies and intuitive movements. found structures and systems are lifted from their original intentions and used as the basis for improvisation and abstraction."
Matt Rogalsky (USA/UK) An innovative and challenging sound artist. Curious site.
Otto Romanowski (Finland) "composer, computer artist, lecturer"
Jon Rose (Australia) "for 30 years jon rose has been creating a unique body of work, almost everything imaginable about, on and with the violin"
David Rosenboom David Rosenboom "has been widely acclaimed as a pioneer in American experimental music since the 1960's. He is a composer, performer, conductor, interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator, and has explored ideas in his work about the spontaneous evolution of forms, languages for improvisation, new techniques and notation for ensembles, cross-cultural collaborations, performance art, computer music systems, interactive multi-media, compositional algorithms, and the structure of the brain and nervous system. He has composed extensively for both instrumental and technological media and plays piano, violin, viola, percussion, trumpet, and live, electronic systems."
Mikel Rouse (USA)
Dane Rudhyar (USA) "Seed man of the century" - composer and astrologer and, amongst other things, the first man to play Jesus Christ on film.
Carl Ruggles (USA) "Born Charles Sprague Ruggles, the New England composer teutonized his name to Carl when a youth. Carl's music is sometimes (somewhat incorrectly) associated with that of his friend, fellow composer and sometimes financial backer Charles Ives (1874-1954), for its rugged American individuality. Ruggles, an incorrigible reviser given to working at a snail's pace, produced precious few musical works over his long career, but they are darn good ones! He devoted much of his life to painting, which could partially explain his low musical output. He developed a highly dissonant, contrapuntal style somewhat akin to the atonal styles of Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) and his pupils."
SALIkaPALIKAU (Lithuania) "contemporary sound experiments, researches in new limits in music"
Paul Schütze Composer and sound designer.
Elliott Sharp (USA)
Wayne Siegel (Denmark/USA)Wayne Siegel, American composer living in Aarhus, Denmark, has written music in many genres ranging from computer music to orchestral w