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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

“The universe of Gong began in 1969 when Daevid Allen was inspired by a profound psychedelic vision. A founder member of Soft Machine, Allen incorporated his spiritual and metaphysical leanings into an evolving collective. More a mythology than a band in the conventional sense, Gong established itself as one of the most unique, innovative and experimental rock groups of the seventies, through an exploratory mix of rock, jazz and psychedelia with elements of mysticism and surrealism, unafraid to deliver its messages directly, obliquely or whimsically.”
From: Gong x HENGE

“Donald WG Lindsay is best known as the creator of the Lindsay System three-octave keyless chanter for the Scottish smallpipes, as played by him on the critically acclaimed album History of Sleep, recorded in collaboration with Glasgow experimental legend Richard Youngs. Donald is a former convenor of the Lowland and Border Pipers Society, with which he has a long association. Although a traditional singer since his teens, Donald has rarely ventured onto the stage as a vocalist, although he has recorded sporadically. In late 2020, he received airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music from Iggy Pop, who described his music as:”
From: Donald WG Lindsay & Alasdair Roberts

“With her second full length record, Opposite Day, due for release in October 2025, Natalie Holmes expands on the experimental approach she began in her debut self-produced venture, Vitamin Be. The new album shifts between alt-pop dreamy soundscapes and analog wormholes, to convey the dizzying emotional highs and lows of today's world. Inspired by artists like Caroline Polachek, Bon Iver, The Japanese House and Aurora, Opposite Day is a kaleidoscopic journey that delves into the spaces between love and loss, focusing less on what’s good or bad and more on the search for silver linings in an ever-shifting, chaotic landscape.”
From: Natalie Holmes

“Tony Bontana, a Birmingham based rapper, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, is a trailblazer in the UK’s experimental hip-hop landscape, renowned for his self-coined “Splayed” style—a distinctive blend of degraded, manipulated samples, non-linear rhythms, and deeply introspective lyricism, released through his independent label, Everything is Perfect Records.”
From: mark william lewis + Tony Bontana

“Since they formed in 2018, Brighton’s PROJECTOR have stubbornly gone their own way. Bringing angular industrial drum machines to hook laden alt-rock, and lush melody to frenzied post-punk, the band have never hesitated to prioritise sonic breadth and an experimental attitude to pop. It’s this confidence in craft that have lead them to tour Europe with rock giants Cleopatrick while simultaneously haunting the airplay of BBC Radio 6’s left field Steve Lamacq and Amy Lamé shows.”
From: PROJECTOR