KVR Audio

rachmiel · Post by **rachmiel** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:20 pm

greetings experimental music lovers. :-)

i'm trying to get a sense of who's out there experimental-music-loving-wise at kvr. to that end, here are a few questions i'd appreciate your answers to:

what types of experimental music do you listen to?

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who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

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do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

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please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

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what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

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thanks!

rachMiel

rachmiel · Post by **rachmiel** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:21 pm

i'll start.

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what types of experimental music do you like/love/listen to?

pretty much everything from arnold schoenberg (early 20th century) on. these days, i listen mostly to avant electronica. the stranger, the better.

who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

schoenberg, webern, berg, stockhausen, boulez, xenakis, ligeti, cage, zappa, beefheart, autechre, richard devine, matmos, murcof, venetian snares.

do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

both.

please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

http://electro-music.com
http://intelligentmachinery.net
http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumaniti ... rtifact116
http://www.avantgardeproject.org
http://www.some-assembly-required.net/blog

what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

not bad! there are some good experimental composers and conversations in the cafe. i just wish we weren't so much in the minority, wish we had a 'place of our own.' :-)

cusis · Post by **cusis** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:35 pm

what types of experimental music do you listen to?

Anything that i percieve to be original enough in its own unique experimental way. for example i have quite an eclectic taste of music, however i will definitaly apprectaite if an artist has tried to create something even remotely unique, this can be in any genre.

who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

BT, Junkie XL, The Prodigy, I Monster, Royksopp, Aphex Twin, Hybrid, Lemon Jelly, Adam Freeland, Daft Punk, Andy Page, James Holden, Luke Chable, Junkie XL. Yppah, Radiohead, Timo Maas, Blockhead, Dave Mathews Band, Department Of Eagles, Coldplay, Chicane, The Chemical Brothers, Burial, Banana Bread, Air, Fluke, Front 242, Goldfrapp, Helios, ILS, J.Views, Imogen Heap, Frou Frou, John Murphy, Kings of convenience, Kings Of Leon, L.E.D, Lamb, Marconi Union, Pink Floyd, Shiloh, Thom Yorke, Tosca, Trente Moller, Ulrich Schnauss, UNKLE, DJ Shadow, Alopecia, Zero 7, FC Kahuna

do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

Compose and partly perform electroni music.

please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

Like you i am always open, searching for something new, so apart fomr the artist i have suggested i dont know of many or any places on the internet for this.

My myspace: www.myspace.com/gyrebeats

what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

I can't say i know too much about the scene.

herodotus · Post by **herodotus** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:02 pm

what types of experimental music do you listen to?

Types? I know nothing of types.

who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

Bartok, Webern, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Busoni, Ives, Varese, Zappa, Lou Harrison, Alan Hovhaness, Fantomas, Melt Banana, Ligeti.

Oh, and my wife Lora insists on my writing: 'Joan of Arc Motherfuckers!'

do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

Sometimes. More and more often lately. An older work is on the latest Intelligent Machinery release.

please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

I'm sorry, but I am not much for links on this stuff. I am more of a book reader. Peter Yates and Paul Griffiths are both favorite authors. More recent stuff I hear about through all kinds of sources too numerous to mention or remember. I suppose I have heard of a few bands through Thurston Moore'e blog.

what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

Better than any other audio-related website by a good measure. How it measures up against the cool sites that I never go to I don't know.

mystahr · Post by **mystahr** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:12 pm

what types of experimental music do you listen to?

Just about anything I can get my hands on. But what must be said is that nearly most of what I listen to is creative commons licensed experimentalism. Why, well basically because I fill up a three+ hour radio show on Stillstream which focusses on experimental music where the motto sometimes is 'the odder the better'.
I must admit though that music that makes use of field recordings has a bigger chance to get aired on the show since I love hearing such.

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who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

Delia Derbyshire, Dick Raaijmakers, Iannis Xenakis, Oscar Sala to name a few from the early 60's/70's
Commercial artists/bands from today are Ryoiji Ikeda, Ben Frost, Jim O'Rourke
There are quite a few CC-composers/bands I would play blindly on my show:
Big city Orchestra, Anton Mobin; Christopher McFall; D'incise; Ryonkt; Terje Paulsen, Khate, Controlled Dissonance and oh so many more. These are just the names from the top of my tongue

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do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

Well yes; and to date I still do not know how or where to tag it, well ok more Mental then experi I'd say. Right now I'm in a very slow period and my last release I find hard to outdo.
Besides creating experimental soundage and the aforementioned weekly radioshow I also publish experimental music. Just not Normal (the netlabel) has just reached the 37th release in under a years time and is going strong.
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please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

I guess a good starting point for those not in the know where to find good CC licensed experimental music would be the NNTS series. These are compilationalbums of the best music released and featured on the radioshow during a certain period of time. If you check the netlabel link list there you'll find all the netlabels that release experimental music.There are now 6 in the series so prepare for some 24 hr listening time.
There isn't really one good source on only experimental music out there, most focus on electronic music in general and rarely any just on experimental music.
Good ones are:
http://disquiet.com
http://massard3.blogspot.com/

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what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

Well knowing there are a few experimental artist around here, I can't really say there's an actual scene here. But then perhaps I don't frequent this place too often and I miss out on a lot. I guess it is just like an experimental scene in general; a lot is happening in the niches all over the net but a single 'place' there is non.

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thanks!

Thank you!

stanlea · Post by **stanlea** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:17 pm

Rachmiel ! Thanks thanks a thousand for this thread !!!!

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:20 pm

what types of experimental music do you listen to?

See under who I listen too - I don't know how to define "types" as such
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who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

Berio, Stockhausen, Ligeti, Penderecki, Ives, Riley, Partch, Cage, Henry Cow, Annette Peacock, Paul Bley, Laurie Anderson, lots of "proggy" stuff (most of which I see as experimental in many respects - esp the more Soft Machine/Wyatt end of things), lots of the more "out there" "New wave" - bands like Ludus, The door and the window, Out on Blue 6/LT Fits, Swell Maps, Residents, Raincoats, Beefheart, Tom waits, This Heat, Stina Nordenstam, Telefon Tel Aviv, The Cinematic Orchestra and lots more (very eclectic)

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do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

Yes

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please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

Don't know - I tend to do my own thing and not pay attention to any particular "scene"

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what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

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No idea, sorry. Is there one?
[/quote]

mystahr · Post by **mystahr** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:22 pm

cusis wrote:who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

BT, Junkie XL, The Prodigy, I Monster, Royksopp, Aphex Twin, Hybrid, Lemon Jelly, Adam Freeland, Daft Punk, Andy Page, James Holden, Luke Chable, Junkie XL. Yppah, Radiohead, Timo Maas, Blockhead, Dave Mathews Band, Department Of Eagles, Coldplay, Chicane, The Chemical Brothers, Burial, Banana Bread, Air, Fluke, Front 242, Goldfrapp, Helios, ILS, J.Views, Imogen Heap, Frou Frou, John Murphy, Kings of convenience, Kings Of Leon, L.E.D, Lamb, Marconi Union, Pink Floyd, Shiloh, Thom Yorke, Tosca, Trente Moller, Ulrich Schnauss, UNKLE, DJ Shadow, Alopecia, Zero 7, FC Kahuna

And here lyeth I guess the big dilemma of what to define as experimental music. I'd agree to say that many of these names have pushed boundaries in their own fields, I cannot fully agree that many of these are experimental artists.

Ofcourse it is all perception and that which we get in contact with; what I think is experimental is not what everyone considers to be experimental and vice versa.

I call the music I play on my show or that which I create or release to be experimental, but hasn't there been many discussions before of what experimental music really is? Experimental doesn't really have a unified meaning, which could well be the cause of why this all happens in the niche rather then have a single forum/site/scene.

vespers75 · Post by **vespers75** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:24 pm

what types of experimental music do you listen to?

Types? No need to 'label' the uncategorizable or the undefineable.

who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

There are many. Ulver, Belong, To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie, Spektr, and a myriad of others...

do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

At times and in ways, yes.

please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

there is such a thing?

what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

Pure...the unsigned and the unrestrained.

Klemperer · Post by **Klemperer** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:41 pm

I enjoy to listen to many different kinds of music, including of course many experimental styles. It is inspiring, often unique, and only sometimes, like with all things - for my taste of course only - not so great.

At the same time I am utterly bored by any "scenes", and have met in literature quite a lot of people who call themselves "experimental", and are abhorrible nerds. After many years of asking myself why this is so, why this lovely way of producing art is often so - the only thing all of those "scenes", be it painters, musicians, writers and so on share is that they want some "Geheimbund", like Stefan George in Heidelberg at the beginning of last century. They want to be "a genius" sometimes, or call it otherwise, but nearly all want to be "better than the rest". That is what is so boring, and surely not good for their art. Read a bit about Stefan George, or about Schoenberg (I really like music of him, but not his absurd, spoilt-kid like curses against people who in reality did everything to help him, like for example Otto Klemperer, who helped him into a job at university in Los Angeles and performed works of him...) if you're interested in this kind of sad addition, which happens too often.
Maybe egomania is something common, and it is just that someone who performs the 56th version of a techno song would not consider himself "experimental", so would not feel like a rare genius - but still be an egomaniac, just swimming in a bigger pool? I don't know. I don't want to offend anyone, but it is in 2009 more than sure that in many arts the last 15-19 years were years of many bloated, self-centered egomaniacs in the "high arts" (?), and that their arrogance. Maybe our age will be remembered as the sad age of recycling. It has its great sides, and will have them in the future, but there was no need for this extreme form of arrogance. Sometimes it was enough to mention some philosopher (Deleuze, Foucault were often used) and then noodle on, and laugh about the rest of the world. All in all it was a way of not taking notice of other people, and that part of it was being nearly half dead (in my opinion, of course

)

not enough space or not enough people taking notice of experimental music?
I don't agree here.
Nowadays it is by far not the case that experimental music is something nobody would worship. In our own café you find a lot of great experimental artists like rachmiel himself, justin3am, polyslax, jancivil, jazzyspoon, shamann, to mention just a very few...

In the general media maybe the pop-discourse in the feuilletons has replaced reviews about experimentalists. That could be. But still, you find tons of music, information, reviews, sponsored concerts, if you want to.

Do I make experimental music? Yes, but strictly privately. I don't believe it is en par with for example above artists, or to be frank, for me there exists no "this is better or worse" in that area, but I think the music I make is sometimes experimental, often not - and just for me and a few friends

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I can't give links, as I have a "randomized" way of listening to such music, like I do with many other pieces of music. I follow, say, a link by Shamann, and download an album where he released a song, but others too....then I decide if I like something, visit this website, follow other links... Stupid, surely, but this way you don't share links, you forget them and save just mp3s or oggs

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All in all I would be sad if experimental music had no place at KVR or elsewhere, very sad - but I don't think it needs a special place. The charm of the music café is that it is like it is - and for sure it leads to the fact that quite a lot of people who do completely other kinds of music start to listen to experimental music too... We have what we need - musicians can exchange pms, share wavs (I like it that runagate vor example gives his wavs away so others can do something with it). I rather think there are a lot of forums for specialists - and some of them need more of fresh air, something the music café already has:).

I could have said it in short: yes, experimental art for all! But with a bit less "Geheimbund" and with - at last - some self-criticism if something goes not the way we our you or us or them want. I admit, I often tried to play, say, a modern classical piece to people who don't listen to that music at all, and nearly in all cases they thought I was an idiot. So then they think I am an idiot. I'll try next time, and maybe they will still think I'd be an idiot - I can't change it

. I would worry more if they cried "let's bomb our ennemy!". That would be a huge problem. Concerning the arts - we all are free to persuade each other that Ligety is great. And all are free to say, "not for me". Sometimes it is that simple, and as not much is simple, I am happy with that.

SuitcaseOfLizards · Post by **SuitcaseOfLizards** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:44 pm

I'm just now moving into experimental/ambient/soundscape music, so while I don't have a lot to contribute, I'll toss in my 2 tin pans worth!

*what types of experimental music do you listen to?

So far, any and everything I can get my ears on! Ambient, dark electro, soundscapes.. it's all good.

*who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

Mostly just listening to Stillstream and some works in the cafe, I don't have any favorites (yet)!

*do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

I'm trying my humble best to work on composing a few pieces in Orion Platinum, which is a bit of a challenge for me!

*please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

Not enough experience to help here, I only recently discovered StillStream...!

*what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

Not enough experience to say - yet!

VicDiesel · Post by **VicDiesel** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:46 pm

cusis wrote:BT, Junkie XL, The Prodigy, I Monster, Royksopp, Aphex Twin, Hybrid, Lemon Jelly, Adam Freeland, Daft Punk, Andy Page, James Holden, Luke Chable, Junkie XL. Yppah, Radiohead, Timo Maas, Blockhead, Dave Mathews Band, Department Of Eagles, Coldplay, Chicane, The Chemical Brothers, Burial, Banana Bread, Air, Fluke, Front 242, Goldfrapp, Helios, ILS, J.Views, Imogen Heap, Frou Frou, John Murphy, Kings of convenience, Kings Of Leon, L.E.D, Lamb, Marconi Union, Pink Floyd, Shiloh, Thom Yorke, Tosca, Trente Moller, Ulrich Schnauss, UNKLE, DJ Shadow, Alopecia, Zero 7, FC Kahuna

Top 40 music is by definition not experimental.

Btw, didn't Robert Fripp say something like "I do my experimenting at home. What I perform in public is finished". I wonder if the composers that others consider experimental (not the ones who call themselves experimental) consider their music other than "this is what I absolutely have to make at this stage in my development". The word "experimental" suggests something unfinished, intermediate on the way to something else. I doubt that many composers consider their works that way.

Victor.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:53 pm

VicDiesel wrote:Top 40 music is by definition not experimental.

really?

rachmiel · Post by **rachmiel** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:59 pm

> abhorrible

wunderbar! klemperer, you invented a new word

abhorrible

that doesn't exist (yet) in english! a portmanteau of:

abhorrent + horrible

love it!

:-)

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:45 pm

what types of experimental music do you listen to?

Mostly electronic. The glitchy stuff, the noisy stuff (but not so much in the realm of "noise music" per se (Merzbow etc.)), and the more experimental sides of dark ambient, powernoise and trip-hop.

I like some electroacoustic as well as purely digital stuff. Playing barbed wire fences with a violin bow or making an organ out of car horns is going to get my attention.

who are some of your favorite experimental bands/composers?

100blumen, Akira Rabelais, Akita Mata, Alva Noto, Älymystö, Anaphylaxis, Andrew Pekler, Apparat, Architect, Autopoieses, Bertuf, Bombardier, Brian Reitzell, Cenotype, Christina Kubisch, COH, Converter, Cordell Klier, Dabrye, Dead Voices on Air, Deadbeat, Duet for Theremin & Lap Steel, Glen Bledsoe, Hulk, Kiew, The Lothars, Lovesliescrushing, Lustmord, Microstoria, Morgenstern, Nettle, The Operative, Oval, Pamelia Kurstin, Pimmon, Plumbline, Portishead, Prometheus Burning, Richard Chartier, Ryoki Ikeda, Scanner, Semiconductor, Svarte Greiner, Tachikoma-Kun, Taisuke Matsuo, Taylor Deupree, Tim Hecker, Tuung, Twinkle, The User, Von Magnet.

do you make (compose, perform) experimental music?

Yes.

please share links of experimental music sites you find worthwhile.

eMusic has a lot of experimental music available, as does archive.org and some netlabels.

I visit Createdigitalmusic regularly and they frequently have features on experimental stuff. Sometimes Electro-Music though it's also not dedicated to the experimental. There are many websites out there on unusual instruments as well. As far as I know, there is not really a community specifically for experimental musicians per se though.

what do you think of the experimental music 'scene' on kvr?

Mixed feelings. There are many of us willing to experiment. There are people making some good, unique music. But it doesn't feel like a strong community for experimental music. Honestly I'm not sure what that would look like; it seems like online discussions of experimental music peter out fairly quickly.

experimental music lovers unite!