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Bristol's Experimental Music Listings

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Bristol's Experimental Music Scene

It’s Bristol’s dance music that has earnt Bristol’s music scene international recognition, but the city’s playful experimentation between musicianship, electronics and sound art that is starting to gain the most traction. It's with a sigh of relief that we bid farewell to loop-pedal-powered hippies of the past and embrace the patch bays, compressors and modular synths of the future. All Bristol’s experimental music events are listed on this page.

Buy tickets for experimental music events in Bristol

What our editors say

“Late 2023 saw the release of his long anticipated fourth album ‘Time on my Hands’ via One Little Independent Records. Contemplative and experimental, the album is the result of Ásgeir’s time spent deeply engrossed in his home studio, sensitively layering acoustic elements with electronics and brass, further exploring choral elements of electronic pop music whilst maintaining the spidery, introspective vocals that he has become known for.”
From: Ásgeir

“Other influences included “contemporary productions like Foodman’s ‘Yasuragi Land’, a Japanese experimental manic scatter sample electronica artist who blows my mind. Kate NV: I love her bass sounds and twisted melodic rhythms. Also, I was listening to Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s ‘Keyboard Fantasies’,” he continues. “His voice just wraps around me, transporting me entirely to other places, and I only know one other person who can do that and that’s Anna B Savage.””
From: Mike Lindsay presents supershapes w Anna B Savage

“Recorded by Nick Roeder in the band’s hometown of Louisville, KY. Wombo’s new EP ‘Slab’ is a loose, instinctual grouping of songs that gradually morph into sonic territory that’s at once familiar to those already indoctrinated with the band’s experimental doses of surrealist escapism; as well as sweeter, stripped-down shapes.”
From: WOMBO

“Shamanic noise pop from London. One half of happy harsh noise hoppers Isn'tses, Nnja Riot aka Lisa McKendrick creates a fusion of noise compositions, darkwave aesthetics, and an experimental attitude. She interweaves the raw energy of noise with melodic layers and pulsating beats to create shamanic experimental songscapes. Killer new album, Violet Fields, out on Cruel Nature.”
From: NNJA RIOT/ STEPHEN LANE/DISGUSTING CATHEDRAL/MOTES

“(Iron/Metal) are an experimental rock quartet based in Bristol- developing arrangements from improv jams, combining varying influences into to the fold – a blend of Ukrainian lyrics, guitars, saxophone, pulsing drums, modular synth and experimental textures.”
From: All Structures Align + Broadsheets + ЗАЛІЗО