List of experimental musicians

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

A–E

 * Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah – (Egypt) experimental music
 * Alice Glass - (Canada) Experimental, witch house, noise
 * 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
 * Robert Ashley – totalist television opera
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * Malísima - ambient, glitch, IDM, noise, spoken word, abstract
 * 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.
 * 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
 * Zazie Productions, composer and multimedia artist
 * Zoviet France – British band