Modern, experimental, avant-garde music

I apologize if this thread is lurking somewhere in the bottom pages, but I didn't see it and thought it would be a welcome addition.

The terms in the tile are naturally vague. "Modern" music probably begins at the early time of the last century, avant-garde has been around as a term for ever as well and what has been avant-garde need not be now. Experimental can also mean anything. However this sort of ambiguity is good, I think, all types of music is welcome to be shared on this thread! From western academical music to odd underground electronic acts. It need not be "weird" for weirdness sake or the most "out there" stuff you can find.

I shall begin with some stuff I have been enjoying:

Toru Takemitsu, one of the best known 20th century Japanese composers. His work is good enough to create a fake sense of synaesthesia for me (I don't generally have synaesthesia): the harmonies are so good that it feels like water running down my body or a sweet drink. (Appropriate since he has a lot of water themed titles for compositions)

edited 3rd Jun '13 12:55:01 PM by Yachar

Normally I end up hating most "avant-garde" or "experimental" music as most of it comes off to me as a bunch of folks showboating the personal influences to appear as "quirky" and "unique" as possible (in the most vapid of ways) rather than attempting to create a focused artistic statement but there are some I can enjoy. In particular, there's Belgium's Univers Zero who were part of that whole "Rock In Opposition" movement and basically sound like (or used to anyways) the background music you'd expect on some old black and white likely European horror movie but made even more intimidating. Heresie for example sounds almost like an acoustic predecessor to later blackened and doomy death metal.

After that album, they started getting less "heavy" (most of the time anyways) and not so harmonically dense but the more fluid nature of the compositions I guess made up for that.

edited 3rd Jun '13 4:50:23 PM by StillbirthMachine

I imagine Jonny Greenwood's compositions count as "modern", right? Here's my favorite soundtrack of his so far—the one for Norwegian Wood.

I love how the opening melody is based on the Beatles song.

Also, here's an experimental piece from the beginning of the 20th century.

Ferruccio Busoni—Greatest pianist of his time, tirelessly dedicated Bach fanboy, defender of the new but holding up the traditions of the past, and writer of the Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music.

Some quotes of interest:

Here's one of my favorite pieces of his: the orchestral prelude from his opera Doktor Faust (adapted from an earlier written Nocturne for orchestra).

edited 4th Jun '13 4:27:19 AM by Fresison

In the extreme end of metal, especially death metal, there's been a recent influx of very dissonant/atonal sounding bands. Although the ideas can be traced back to classic Voivod and has some early death metal practitioners in the form of bands like Thormenthor, Demilich, and Funcunt, it wasn't until the later albums of Gorguts and Immolation that it started to really solidify into something more.

Gorguts went for a much more jarring, chaotic, and jazzy sound and even amongst fans of this style, they're nearly unlistenable for some.

Since then they haven't gotten any less unusual sounding. We've had Australia's Portal "try to take death metal apart and piece it back together" which worked... aesthetically at least. Unfortunately they're really mediocre composers and songwriters, even when compared to more primitive "old school" bands. There's been Pavor who released the incredible ''Furioso'' in 2000 after a great straightforward brutal/tech death debut back in 1994 and then disappeared. !T.O.O.H.! (The Obliteration Of Humanity) have recently reformed and are best know for their subtly classical/folk/opera influenced, uber schizophrenic and also more grindcore influenced approach. Canadians Mitochondrion too the primitive feral aggression of the "Ross Bay Cult" sound and created a more sinister, militaristic, cadenced, and alien version of it along with Rites of thy Degringolade to a lesser extent. Although the style they're associated with is usually the butt of many jokes and mockeries in the more underground death metal circles, Italians Natron were actually one of the first groups to mix Voivodisms into a death metal framework, in particular the more rhythmically pugilistic and pinpoint precise style that Suffocation helped to start. The style can even at times sound incredibly highbrow and refined, almost snooty as French death/black historians (now sadly defunct) Borgia have shown us.

Recent years have been quite fortunate for this approach. Abyssal created two albums of desolate, doomed, and elaborately nuanced death/black and now doom on this year's release. Aosoth, while more of a black metal band, are still quite death metal influenced and have an almost ambient-style approach to song construction. Chaos Echoes, formed from the ashes of Bloody Sign, and Zealotry both have yet to release albums but what they've shown so far are signs that the style will only further diversify in years to come.

edited 5th Jun '13 2:53:09 PM by StillbirthMachine

Hey, thanks for introducing me to Univers Zéro! Something so great from my own country, and I'd never heard of them... For shame!

Those bands you listed above are gonna take some more time to explore. I know virtually nothing about metal, so the more out there stuff is a bit beyond my reach at this point.

Here's some more experimental stuff from the past—"Fumeux fume par fumée",a 14th century polyphonic rondeau by Solage.

According to Wikipedia, "some of his music was quite experimental (as the 'Ars subtilior' was), for example the bizarre Fumeux fume par fumee (approx: "The smoky one smokes through [or for] smoke", including the possible equivocus "par fumee" -> "Smoker who smokes 'parfumee' smoke"), in which the singers appear to get completely lost, singing low and extravagantly chromatically for the time; it contains some of the lowest-tessitura vocal writing in any music of the period."

Glad to see the thread kicking off. I haven't the time to acquaint myself with all the information right now, but I definitely will check them out, even though I am a bit averse to metal.

I've been enjoying Cage's sonatas and interludes for prepared piano quite a bit! It really does remind me gamelan music.

edited 5th Jun '13 1:26:53 PM by Yachar

@Yachar: Just listened to your Passacagla (Passacaglia?) "Lanterns at Night" on your youtube channel. All I can say is—Wow. Beautiful work! Do or did you study composition? Music theory?

I don't like Cage very much. The only piece of his that I enjoy is his Bacchanale, and even that's pretty superficial I think.

Here's a criminally-underrated opera: Volo di notte, or Vol de nuit, composed by Dallapiccola after the Saint-Exupéry novel. Mixes 12-tone techniques and tonality, just like Berg's later works, but to be honest I like it more than Wozzeck or Lulu.

Brought to you, as you'd expect, by the good people at The Wellesz Company.

edited 5th Jun '13 4:59:54 PM by Fresison

Not entirely sure why I haven't posted in this topic yet. Hmm...

The discussion of Busoni reminded me of how he was one of the first relatively mainstream Western composers to propose dividing the octave into equal intervals other than the conventional semi-tone. He seemed particularly enamoured of the third-tone (one-eighteenth of the octave), which he considered an excellent interval for a chromatic leading tone.

One of his disciples was a Czech composer by the name of Alois Hába. His work is, shall we say, strange.

This is one of his "friendlier" pieces in many respects, in that the arrangement is not is not especially dense and the harmonies, while carried along very strange melodic lines, tend to resolve very nicely.

edited 6th Jun '13 8:09:49 PM by JHM

No mention of lowercase yet?

Jakob Ullmann's "Fremde Zeit Addendum" is definitely worth more than a cursory listen

I haven't really listened to much moderm/experimental classical myself yet, but I've been curious about it for quite some time. I mean, I already enjoy old school industrial, which is pretty heavily influenced by that anyway. Does anyone know any good starting points?

Univers Zero had a couple of bands similar in idea to them in that they all did the whole "mutated chamber orchestra from hell" thing. Art Zoyd are probably the best example. They aren't quite as dark and oppressive, instead going for a more theatrical and at times arguably more experimental approach.

There was also Present, which was started by an ex-member and went for a jazzier and more "rockish" sound although it wouldn't sound like foot-tapping singalong tunes anytime soon. They had an excellent if very short (three song) comeback album in 2009 too I think that included a cover of Univers Zero's "Jack the Ripper".

Japan had Zypressen who basically played a more melodic and accessible version of this sound. Then there was Lacrymosa with "Bugbear" that basically sounded like a much sillier and zany take. Unfortunately, nothing on youtube for the latter.

Thanks for the reccomendations.

Who are your personal favourite industrial outfits? I don't run into that many other fans of the old-school, experimental stuff, so I'm curious.

Nice to see mention of Univers Zéro, Art Zoyd, Zypressen and Lacrymosa. I was listening to some of Univers Zéro’s debut album today. I just love Daniel Denis’ unusual approach to drumming, acting either as an accent or counterpoint to the melody as opposed to keeping the beat.

RE: Lacrymosa. I only have Joy of the Wrecked Ship, and I can’t remember offhand whether or not that’s their first or second album. There’s some odd versions of European folk tunes on that one, including the Irish folk song “King of the Fairies,” which the Irish folk-rock band Horslips also did.

I have to include a shout-out for my favourite obscure avant-garde Japanese group, Wha-Ha-Ha. I still need to get their albums proper, I still just own the Recommended Records one-disc reduction of their two albums (which plays at 45 RPM!):

They remind me a bit of another Belgian avant-garde band, Cos. Probably because of the female vocals.

When it comes to modern-day tape music and musique concrete, we can't ignore arguably its finest purveyor.

edited 9th Jun '13 5:05:08 AM by Thwise

@Bananaquit: I believe "Bugbear" is their debut from the 80's, but originally it was self-titled. It was reissued later with that name and a bunch of live performance bonus tracks. Personally I like it more than the follow-up.

@JHM: Foetus, Coil, Neubaten and Laibach are probabaly among my favourites. I would add Skinny Puppy, but it's disputable wherever they count.

For the record, a song by the aforementioned Cos, starring the radiant Pascale Son:

And a later track with Ilona Chale on vocals.

Coil are one of my favourite musical acts in any genre, and I am quite fond of Foetus and Neubauten as well!

Have you listened to anything by Test Dept?

Not yet, but I've been meaning to check them out for quite a while.

This seems as good a place as any to post one of my favourite early electronic pieces (from 1965):

@Fresison

Loving the classical music you've posted! New names for me as well, so wonderful discoveries for me.

As for your question, I am currently studying composition in a music high-school. Largely I am self-taught though, music for me is a very serious hobby.

And to share some more music I give you the classic Henry Cow, founder of the RIO (Rock In Opposition) movement:

@Yachar: You're welcome!

Love the lead singer's voice.

A contemporary^note  i.e. currently active classical composer I'm really into at the moment is Richard Dubugnon. Janine Jansen often performs his music, such as his terrific violin concerto:

His music's influenced by the recently deceased Henri Dutilleux (Here's Dutilleux' own violin concerto, "L'arbre des songes", for comparison) but Dubugnon is a bit warmer and more lyrical.

I also like Retour à Montfort-l'Amaury for violin&piano. No guesses as to whom it's inspired by.

edited 16th Jun '13 8:34:06 PM by Fresison

Too Young by Venetian Snares.

The whole song is based around taking snippets of "Too Young to Fall In Love" by Motley Crue, putting them in a blender, and seeing what comes out.

And it is glorious.