WLaura Phillips Anderson is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, focusing particularly on language, technology, and visual imagery. She became more widely known outside the art world when her single "O Superman" reached number two on the UK singles chart in 1981. She also starred in and directed the 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.
WAreski Belkacem, also known simply as Areski, is a French singer, multi-instrumentalist, comedian and composer.
WAnomie Belle is an American multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, and artivist from Seattle. Originally a classically-trained violinist and songwriter, Belle began writing and recording music as a child. Belle has since developed an eclectic and avant-garde musical style that incorporates aspects of electronic, classical, art pop, experimental, trip hop, glitch, and soul.
WCatherine Anahid "Cathy" Berberian was an American mezzo-soprano and composer based in Italy. She interpreted contemporary avant-garde music composed, among others, by Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, John Cage, Henri Pousseur, Sylvano Bussotti, Darius Milhaud, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and Igor Stravinsky. She also interpreted works by Claudio Monteverdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Kurt Weill, Philipp Zu Eulenburg, arrangements of songs by The Beatles, and folk songs from several countries and cultures. As a composer, she wrote Stripsody (1966), in which she exploits her vocal technique using comic book sounds (onomatopoeia), and Morsicat(h)y (1969), a composition for the keyboard based on Morse code.
WBjörk Guðmundsdóttir is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, and DJ. Over her four-decade career, she has developed an eclectic musical style that draws on a range of influences and genres spanning electronic, pop, experimental, trip hop, classical, and avant-garde music.
WJaap Blonk is a Dutch avant-garde composer and performance artist.
WDon Van Vliet was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. He conducted a rotating ensemble called the Magic Band, with whom he recorded 13 studio albums between 1964 and 1982. His music blended elements of blues, free jazz, rock, and avant-garde composition with idiosyncratic rhythms, absurdist wordplay, and his wide vocal range. Known for his enigmatic persona, Beefheart frequently constructed myths about his life and was known to exercise an almost dictatorial control over his supporting musicians. Although he achieved little commercial success, he sustained a cult following as a "highly significant" and "incalculable" influence on an array of new wave, punk, and experimental rock artists.
WRichard Dawson is an English folk-influenced musician from Newcastle upon Tyne. His 2014 album Nothing Important was released by Weird World and was met with critical acclaim. His 2017 album Peasant received similar acclaim, and was chosen by The Quietus as their album of the year. In 2019, he released the album 2020, again to critical acclaim.
WBrigitte Fontaine, is a singer of avant-garde music. She has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry, and world. She has collaborated with Stereolab, Michel Colombier, Jean-Claude Vannier, Areski Belkacem, Gotan Project, Sonic Youth, Antoine Duhamel, Grace Jones, Noir Désir, Archie Shepp, Arno, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago. She is also a novelist, playwright, poet, and actress.
WDiamanda Galás is an American musician and visual artist.
WKeiji Haino is a Japanese musician and singer-songwriter whose work has included rock, free improvisation, noise music, percussion, psychedelic music, minimalism and drone music. He has been active since the 1970s and continues to record regularly and in new styles.
WDagmar Krause is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-rock groups including Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, and Art Bears. She is also noted for her coverage of songs by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. Her unusual singing style makes her voice instantly recognisable and has defined the sound of many of the bands with whom she has worked.
WLoré Ruth Lixenberg is a British mezzo-soprano, active in contemporary and experimental music.
WPhil Minton is a jazz/free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter.
WMeredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer.
WNeo Jessica Joshua, better known as Nao, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer from East London. Her sound has been described as soul combined with electronic music, funk and R&B. Nao coined the term "wonky funk" to describe her style. She released her debut album, For All We Know, in 2016, and her second album, Saturn, in 2018.
WAmy X Neuburg is an American composer, vocalist, and electronic musician.
WLauren Amber Newton is an avant-garde jazz and contemporary classical singer and founding member of the Vienna Art Orchestra.
WKlaus Sperber, known professionally as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona.
WYoko Ono Lennon is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art, which she performs in both English and Japanese, and filmmaking. She was married to English singer-songwriter John Lennon of the Beatles from 1969 until his murder in 1980.
WMichael Allan Patton is an American singer, producer, voice actor and film composer, best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative metal band Faith No More. Noted for his vocal proficiency, diverse singing techniques, wide range of projects, style-transcending influences and eccentric public image, Patton has earned critical praise and influenced many contemporary singers. Patton is also co-founder and lead vocalist of Mr. Bungle, and has played with Tomahawk, Fantômas, Dead Cross, Lovage, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Mondo Cane, and Peeping Tom. Consistent collaborators through his varied career include avant-garde jazz saxophonist John Zorn, hip hop producer Dan the Automator and classical violinist Eyvind Kang.
WMaja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje is a Norwegian vocalist and composer.
WAlfred Wolfsohn was a German singing teacher who suffered persistent auditory hallucination of screaming soldiers, whom he had witnessed dying of wounds while serving as a stretcher bearer in the trenches of World War I. Wolfsohn was diagnosed with Shell Shock, but did not respond to treatment. He subsequently cured himself by vocalizing extreme sounds, bringing about what he described as a combination of catharsis and exorcism.
WYamataka Eye is a Japanese vocalist and visual artist, best known as a member of Boredoms and Naked City. He has changed his stage name three times, from Yamatsuka Eye, to Yamantaka Eye, to Yamataka Eye, and sometimes calls himself eYe or EYヨ. He also DJs under the name DJ 光光光 or "DJ pica pica pica", and has used numerous other pseudonyms.
WPamela Z is an American composer, performer, and media artist who is best known for her solo works for voice with electronic processing. In performance, she combines various vocal sounds including operatic bel canto, experimental extended techniques and spoken word, with samples and sounds generated by manipulating found objects. Z's musical aesthetic is one of sonic accretion, and she typically processes her voice in real time through a software program called MAX MSP on a MacBook Pro as a means of layering, looping, and altering her live vocal sound. Her performance work often includes video projections and special controllers with sensors that allow her to use physical gestures to manipulate the sound and projected media.
WAgata Zubel is a Polish composer and singer.