List of experimental musicians

This is a list of notable experimental musicians, in alphabetical order by surname.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

A–E

• Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah – (Egypt) experimental music
• Acid Mothers Temple – Experimental psychedelic rock
• Arca – (Venezuela) Experimental, Electronic music
• Aphex Twin - IDM, experimental, ambient, glitch
• Anaiis – (French) (Senegal) Experimental musician
• Miguel Álvarez-Fernández – experimental radio and sound installations
• Giulio Aldinucci – experimental electroacoustic composer
• Tori Amos – Alternative, Baroque pop, Experimental
• Laurie Anderson – electronic music
• Ron Anderson – noise and progressive
• Animal Collective – experimental music collective
• Frédéric Acquaviva – (France) Experimental music
• Autechre – (UK) IDM, Experimental, Ambient, Glitch, Flashcore
• Cities Aviv – experimental hip-hop, post-genre
• Nigel Ayers – (UK) sound art, sound collage, member of Nocturnal Emissions
• Derek Bailey – guitarist
• Beck – (USA) Anti-folk and experimental music
• David Behrman – live electronics
• Björk – Alternative, avant-garde, experimental, electronica
• Bladee – Cloud rap, experimental pop
• Boards of Canada – ambient, downtempo, IDM, electronica
• Boredoms – Japanese noise rock
• Burkhard Beins – percussion and objects
• Kate Bush – Art Pop/Rock, Experimental Rock, Alternative Rock, Baroque pop
• Buckethead – guitarist
• Butthole Surfers – Alternative rock, Experimental, Avant-Garde
• Glenn Branca – guitar, noise ensemble
• George Brecht – performance art
• Bull of Heaven – minimalism, noise, drone, avant-garde jazz, modern classical
• Gavin Bryars – indeterministic orchestration
• John Cage – indeterminate music
• Can – Krautrock band
• Captain Beefheart – avant-garde blues artist.
• Charli XCX – experimental pop star.
• Cornelius Cardew – British composer
• Cardiacs – British rock band
• Rhys Chatham – guitar, noise ensemble
• Clipping. – experimental hip-hop
• Coil – sidereal sound, scrying, hallucinogens, ANS, glitches
• Nicolas Collins
• Loren Mazzacane Connors
• Controlled Bleeding – Paul Lemos
• David Cope – composer, computerist
• Henry Cowell – (USA) tone clusters and Extended technique
• Cui Jian – Alternative, avant-garde, experimental, electronica
• Alvin Curran – found sounds
• Current 93 – coined the term "apocalyptic folk"
• Chris Cutler – English experimental music composer and percussionist
• Dead Air Fresheners – masked, anonymous chance music or indeterminate music ensemble
• Death Grips – experimental hip-hop
• Deftones – experimental rock
• Stuart Dempster – reverberant spaces, just intonation, extended trombone techniques
• Earl Sweatshirt - Experimental Hip Hop
• The Dillinger Escape Plan – experimental metal, mathcore
• Arnold Dreyblatt – just intonation
• Kevin Drumm – guitarist
• Iancu Dumitrescu – composer, founder of Hyperion group dedicated to experimental music
• Judy Dunaway
• Kyle Bobby Dunn – composer, arranger, experimental guitarist
• Trevor Dunn – bassist
• Marc Edwards – free jazz
• Leif Elggren
• Brian Eno – ambient music, algorithmic composition
• Experimental Audio Research – ambient, synth/noise
• Carolina Eyck – thereminist

F–J

• Jean-Baptiste Favory – musique concrète & electronic
• Florian-Ayala Fauna – musician, music producer
• FKA Twigs – (UK) musician, songwriter, producer, director
• Morton Feldman – composer
• Flume – experimental electronic producer
• The Flying Lizards – (UK) experimental new wave group
• Flying Lotus – hip hop, IDM, jazz, electronica
• Henry Flynt – violinist, guitarist, inventor of Electronic Hillbilly Music
• David Fenech – musique concrète & experimental pop music
• David First – drones and interference beats
• John Frusciante – guitarist, Rock Musician, Electronica, Hip Hop, Avent-Garde
• Cor Fuhler – improvising multi instrumentalist, composer, instrument builder
• Ellen Fullman – long string Instrument
• Diamanda Galás – vocalist, composer
• Roopam Garg – guitarist, composer
• Qubais Reed Ghazala – musician, composer, father of circuit-bending
• Seppe Gebruers - Quartertone pianist, improvisor and composer
• Alice Glass – (Canada) Experimental, witch house, noise
• Philip Glass – minimalism, composer
• Percy Grainger – composer and performer
• Eli Gras
• Grimes – experimental electronica, synthpop
• Bruce Haack – experimental electronic composer
• Half Japanese – experimental indie rock
• Richard D. James – experimental, ambient, electronic music, techno
• The Hafler Trio
• Lou Harrison – (USA) gamelan influenced
• Carl Michael von Hausswolff
• Joseph Haydn – composer
• Pierre Henry – musique concrète
• Lejaren Hiller – first computer composition Illiac Suite (1957) with Leonard Issacson
• Susumu Hirasawa
• Christopher Hobbs – experimental and systems music composer
• Tim Hodgkinson – English experimental music composer and performer
• Gustav Holst – English composer
• Horse Lords - experimental math rock, krautrock
• Emily Howell – computer composer
• The Hub – interactive real-time computer network: John Bischoff, Tim Perkis, Chris Brown, Phil Stone, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Mark Trayle
• I Set My Friends on Fire
• Martín Irigoyen – guitar, prepared guitar, multi-instrumentalist, steampunk, composer
• Charles Ives – quarter tones, tone clusters, aleatoric music, polyrhythm and polytonality
• Don Joyce – sound collage
• iwrestledabearonce
• JPEGMAFIA – experimental hip-hop

K–P

• KK Null – noise rock
• Kommissar Hjuler – cut-up collages
• Anne La Berge – flute, improvisation, electronics, composition
• André Éric Létourneau – gamelan, flute, composition, chance-operations, electronic music, microtonal music
• George E. Lewis – trombone, composition, improvisation, electronic music, computer music
• Steve Lieberman – American punk bassist, flutist called The Gangsta Rabbi
• A Life of Science – Arizona based electronic band
• Lightning Bolt – noise rock
• Franz Liszt – composer and performer
• Annea Lockwood – environmental sounds
• Alvin Lucier – (USA) acoustical phenomena
• John Lydon – (UK) singer
• The Mars Volta – rock band
• Elio Martusciello – Italian experimental music composer and performer
• Melvins – experimental
• Meshuggah – extreme metal, experimental metal, progressive metal
• Mama Baer – voice improvisation
• Travis Miller - Experimental Artist
• Miya Masaoka – composer and performer
• Merzbow – (Japan) noise music
• Moondog – composer
• Gordon Mumma – live electronics
• Muslimgauze – (UK)
• Ben Neill – sound installations, mutantrumpet
• Phill Niblock – minimal music composer
• Nocturnal Emissions – (UK)
• Nurse With Wound – (UK and Ireland) collaborative solo project of artist Steven Stapleton
• Michael Nyman – (UK) composer and former critic and musicologist
• Midori (band) – (Japan) four-member jazz-punk fusion band
• The Observatory – Singapore-based art-rock band
• Obsil – (ITA) composition, electronic music
• Olivier Messiaen – (France) composer and organist.
• Pauline Oliveros – (USA) meditative music, just intonation, reverberant spaces, Expanded Instrument System
• Oneohtrix Point Never - (USA) electronic music, ambient music, vaporwave
• Yoko Ono – (UK, USA, Japan) happenings
• Orange Monkey – (USA)
• Ortiz Morales – (Spain) Experimental and noise music. Old kinematic synchronisms reconstructions.
• John Oswald – (USA) plunderphonics
• Nam June Paik – happenings, action music
• Paul Panhuysen – string and other sound installations
• Evan Parker – (UK) saxophonist
• Harry Partch – (USA) microtonal composer
• Portishead – Bristol
• Henri Pousseur – (Belgium) self-described as "experimental"

Q–Z

• A.R. Rahman – (India) Film Music composer
• Steve Reich – (USA) multimedia documentary opera
• Hans Reichel – Free improvisation musician and inventor of electro-acoustic instruments
• Renaldo and the Loaf – (UK)
• Dino Residbegovic – (BiH) experimental/live-electronic contemporary music composer
• The Residents – (USA)
• Boyd Rice – (USA) noise music, ambient music
• Terry Riley – (USA) multimedia minimalist composer
• Ivette Román-Roberto – experimental vocalist
• Cipriano de Rore – (Franco-Flemish)
• David Rosenboom – biofeedback (human)
• Keith Rowe – British guitarist
• Luigi Russolo – Futurism and noise music
• Kristoffer Rygg – Frontman and main composer of Ulver
• Erik Satie – precursor of minimalism, dada
• Pierre Schaeffer – Musique concrète
• Mathias Rehfeldt – experimental organist, composer
• Giancarlo Schiaffini – Italian experimental music composer and performer
• Elliott Sharp – multi-instrumentalist
• Mark Stanley – guitarist, composer
• Solage – composer
• Sonic Youth – noise rock band
• SOPHIE - experimental pop
• Soul Coughing – improvisational jazz, hip hop, noise, and samples.
• Sprain - experimental
• Howard Stelzer – (USA)
• Sunn O))) – drone metal band
• Svoy – (USA, Russia) Universal Music Group producer/writer/artist, "...One of the most accomplished experimental electronic artists" —Timmy Kusnierek, Your EDM
• Swans (band) – experimental rock, no wave
• Toru Takemitsu – composer
• James Tenney – alternate tunings, perceptual phenomena
• They Might Be Giants – alternative rock, indie rock, experimental rock, children's music
• Lynda Thomas – experimental musician and performer
• Throbbing Gristle – industrial music, noise, shock lyrics
• Edgard Varèse – electronic music
• Michael Waller – contemporary music
• Ween – psychedelic and lo-fi band that covers a multitude of genres
• Xiu Xiu – experimental rock, noise pop, spoken word
• Kathleen Yearwood – experimental, avant garde composer
• La Monte Young – just intonation, minimalist, drone music
• Richard Youngs – postmodern minimalist
• Frank Zappa – composer and performer
• Evan Ziporyn – (Bang on a Can), gamelan
• John Zorn – postmodern, various genres
• Zoviet France – British band

See also

• List of musicians by genre