start here

I'll answer the second question first. When I tell people, "I've started an experimental music blog," the question that usually follows is, "What is experimental music?" If you haven't yet formulated your own definition, this site could be a bit of a mystery to you.

The problem is, it is a term that refuses to be defined. Experimental music resists, stretches, and breaks boundaries. Defining it is like mapping a beach. The water line changes with the tide.

The single most useful direct comment I have found on the subject is by John Cage: "an experimental action is one the outcome of which is not foreseen."

In his preface to The Principles of Psychology, Vol.1, William James wrote,

The reader will in vain seek for any closed system in the book. It is mainly a mess of descriptive details, running out into queries which only a metaphysics alive to the weight of her task can hope successfully to deal with. That will perhaps be centuries hence; and meanwhile the best mark of health that a science can show is this unfinished-seeming front.

I'd like to coopt James' statement for my own purposes. If you really want to know what experimental music is, keep reading and listening. You'll find it in the details. It is not a style. It is not an aesthetic. It is not an ideology. It is not a limitation. It does have an "unfinished-seeming front," and I for one am glad for it. Its resistance to definition is proof that it is still alive.