Experimental

Group Inerane / Flower-Corsano Duo - Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow, Fri 2 Dec

Two transcendent groups in a Victorian school turned artists’ studio

9 Dec 2011

This was always going to be special: two of the most transcendent groups on earth in the bohemian environs of a Victorian school building turned artists’ studio. The diverse crowd is not left disappointed. Mick Flower and Chris Corsano mesmerise with a…

Fordell Research Unit - The Illusion of Movement

Edinburgh noise auteurs' exercise in metal machine minimalism

7 Dec 2011

(At War With False Noise/Braw Music) Following the textured nuances of his Pjorn 72 label’s Songs For Dying compilation, Edinburgh noise auteur Fraser Burnett joins forces with Muscletusk’s Grant Smith for a relentless exercise in metal machine…

Experimental folk of Richard Youngs set for Edinburgh date

Prolific collaborator behind myriad works of understated wonder

9 Nov 2011

Next time you’re in a Glasgow library, look out. Is the man who is stamping your books singing quietly? Does he have the air of an underground pop star; the aura of a man with a penchant for rustic minimalism and improvised folk? Then you may be in the…

A Midsummer Day's Dream brings Chris & Cosey to Glasgow Tramway

Bill also features Tut Vu Vu, Tristan Perich and Lucky Dragons

21 Jun 2011

‘None of us went on to do anything remotely industrial,’ pointed out Chris Carter in a recent interview. ‘We’d burned ourselves out of it and we didn’t want it to sound like [Throbbing Gristle].’ The truth of that statement will be evident at this…

Wounded Knee - Anicca

Drew Wright’s ongoing adventure in ethno-celtic vocal loops

21 Jun 2011

(Krapp Tapes) This latest excursion in Drew Wright’s ongoing adventure in ethno-celtic vocal loops marries two extended pieces back-to-back on a cassette that comes in a plain brown, hand-stamped envelope and wrapped in an offcut of Harris…

Kronos in Glasgow - Kronos Quartet and Matmos interview

Glasgow festival features Alim Qasimov and Steve Reich's WTC 9/11

28 Apr 2011

You don’t need to have a vinyl collection full of minimalist composers’ masterworks to have heard the music of Kronos Quartet. You could be a hardened electronic enthusiast, or a pure pop believer; your ears will not have escaped their string…

Robbie Thomson on Cryptic Nights project Inducer

Collaboration with Sarah Milne and Jack Wrigley

20 Apr 2011

What was the inspiration for your new project ‘Inducer’ with Sarah Milne and Jack Wrigley? ‘Inducer’ is an extension of our interest in experimental musical instrument design and an attempt to create a crude, mechanical form of electronic music.

Long+Wrong/Tracer Trails with Eli Keszler

Day-long experimental music event features Scotland's best noise artists

6 Apr 2011

This day-long exploration of experimental music is headlined by American free percussionist Eli Keszler (pictured), complete with invented instruments and complex, intricate layering of rhythm and drones. Featuring ten of Scotland's best noise artists…

Sound recordist/artist Chris Watson set for Edinburgh's Dialogues Festival

The ex-Cabaret Voltaire member sets up a sound installation at InSpace

21 Mar 2011

How do you go from being a core member of experimental electronic pioneers Cabaret Voltaire to becoming David Attenborough and Bill Oddie’s favourite sound recordist, with the odd radio documentary and installation for assorted sonic arts festivals…

Non-Stick Erratic Carvery - Inverleith House, Edinburgh, Sun 13 Feb 2011

Day-long experimental event featuring Jazzfinger, Duncan Harrison, Usurper and more

3 Mar 2011

Lazy Sunday afternoons in the Botanics will never be the same again after this all-day extravaganza of nine acts culled from Edinburgh’s fecund experimental hiss-and-mist scene, set in the ornate upstairs gallery of Inverleith House. Headlined by…

John Cage season features Hebrides Ensemble performing Water Music

University Concert Hall and Hunterian Gallery host music and art

18 Feb 2011

The List is particularly chuffed this fortnight to announce a John Cage double banger. Work by the composer, writer and artist can be seen as part of a special Cage season, which includes a lunchtime concert by the Hebrides Ensemble on 24 Feb, at the…

Listen to sound art underwater at Glasgow's Wet Sounds installation

Swimming pool listening part of Glasgow Music and FIlm Festival

16 Feb 2011

The last time Wet Sounds floated into view was in Leith Baths in Edinburgh, where a non-stop electronic pulse added momentum as well as meditation to the daily work-out. This time around, curator Joel Cahan has enlisted the skills of site-specific…

Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel

Compelling and gorgeous debut of eerie and astral electronica from Glasgow duo

11 Feb 2011

This gorgeous debut from Glasgow duo Conquering Animal Sound is draped in eerie, astral electronica, iridescent guitar ripples and heavenly, disembodied vocals. Evoking the pastoral machine music of Mice Parade and Múm, and fusing it with DIY pop and…

Conquering Animal Sound launch debut album of ethereal electronica

Edinburgh duo combine hushed looped vocals and understated electronics

28 Jan 2011

The first time you chance upon a Conquering Animal Sound live affair, you might well be forgiven for tip-toeing back outside again. As the Edinburgh sired duo’s just released debut album, Kammerspiel should indicate at its Edinburgh launch, the CAS…

2010 Le Weekend bows out with Faust, Murcof and Tarwater

Pioneering Stirling experimental music festival also hosts Ben Frost, Bill Wells and John Butcher

6 Oct 2010

Since its inception in 1997, Le Weekend has brought a remarkable range of beautiful and challenging music to Scotland. ‘The idea of an experimental music festival, and also the idea of a festival in Stirling, was quite unique,’ says Alastair Campbell…

Animal Collective - ODDSAC

15 Aug 2010

(Plexi) Fair enough, the frenzied blur of kaleidoscopic digital fuzz, the morphing rainbow lights; that, we could probably have seen coming. Like their music, the first ‘visual album’ from Baltimore’s warped-poppers, Animal Collective was always…

Subcurrent 2010: No Concept/ No Clue

15 Aug 2010

It’s the return of the annual experimental music festival, brought to you by those Glasgow champions of the underground, Volcanic Tongue. A tenner on the door will get you performances by Matt Valentine and Erika Elder (think spectral jams and folky…

FOUND play at Electric Circus

30 Jul 2010

This experimental pop outfit have been putting out records since 2006, after Tommy, Kev and Ziggy (pictured) met at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. They won a BAFTA round about this time last year for their slightly fame-obsessed…

James Ferraro

3 Jun 2010

‘Don’t expect “bands” or straightforward “songs”. Just leave musical logic at the door and have some fun,’ advises Edinburgh promoter Nick Herd, the man behind grassroots endeavour Braw Gigs. He’s referring to the upcoming show from press-shy…

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with George Burt and Susan Alcorn

3 Jun 2010

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, led by saxophonist Raymond MacDonald, can always be relied upon to add some experimental intrigue to the largely classicist Jazz Festival, and this year sees them develop their relationship with Baltimore pedal steel…

Rangda brings together Sir Richard Bishop, Ben Chasny and Chris Corsano

20 May 2010

Put together three instrumental virtuosos: Sir Richard Bishop of the Sun City Girls on guitar; Ben Chasny of Comets on Fire and Six Organs of Admittance also on guitar; and free-improv drummer Chris Corsano, who has played in the past with Thurston…

Arika bring Seijiro Murayama and Eric La Casa to Glasgow for Uninstal

12 May 2010

The Arika-produced taster festival for Instal continues over the weekend with more experimental adventures in sound, including Eric La Casa and Jean-Luc Guionnet’s ‘House’, an exploration of soundscapes gathered from Glaswegian homes; ‘Used Sound’…

Krautrock pioneers Faust embark on 2010 UK tour

22 Apr 2010

The story of Faust begins in 1970, when six dropout musicians convened in an old schoolhouse in rural Wümme, near Hamburg, to embark on a freewheeling musical project. Along the way they had run-ins with the Baader-Meinhof terrorist gang, and brought…

Humcrush unites members of Food and Supersilent for Edinburgh Dialogues gig

31 Mar 2010

Part of the Dialogues festival of electronic music, Humcrush make a much-anticipated return to Edinburgh after their last visit to the Bongo Club in 2006. The Norwegian duo consisting of percussionist Thomas Strønen and keyboard player Ståle Storløkken…

The National Review of Live Art 30th anniversary

25 Feb 2010

It all seems wrong. The National Review of Live Art has built its reputation on change. It never looks back and never stays still. The annual bonanza of what used to be called the avant garde has doggedly embraced the disconcerting, the deviant and the…