What Is Music is an experimental music

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 festival held in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It originally emerged in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 in 1994 as a platform to expose unusual contemporary musical forms that were otherwise unknown to the general public at that point in time. Simultaneously, it challenged the prevailing preconceptions as to what in fact constituted music.

The festival has been coordinated by Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi is a multi-instrumentalist who in major plays electric guitar and drums, with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to a Jewish family originally from Iraq....

 and Robbie Avenaim since its inception. In recent years the festival has travelled to Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

. Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi is a multi-instrumentalist who in major plays electric guitar and drums, with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to a Jewish family originally from Iraq....

 has since left the What Is Music team.

1995

1995's festival featured another performance of John Zorn

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

's Cobra "game piece" including many of the same performers from the previous year; Machine For Making Sense, which consisted of Rik Rue, Chris Mann, Jim Denley, Amanda Stewart

Amanda Stewart

Amanda Stewart is a contemporary Australian poet and sound/performance artist.Amanda Stewart began writing and performing poetry in the 1970s and has since produced a wide array of sound, video and multimedia work. In the 1980s she worked for ABC radio as a producer...

, and Stevie Wishart; Lucas Abela's Pealed Hearts Paste project; percussion ensemble Utungun Percussion in performance with Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi is a multi-instrumentalist who in major plays electric guitar and drums, with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to a Jewish family originally from Iraq....

 and Robbie Avenaim; Tony Buck

Tony Buck

Tony Buck is a drummer and percussionist. He graduated from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music , becoming involved in the Australian jazz scene....

; performance art group Distraziione ed Innovazione; and Ear Rational Music.

1996

1996's festival featured an evening of solo guitarists including Peter Jones, Gary Butler, David Brown

David Brown (Australian musician)

David Brown is a musician from Melbourne, Australia, who has played bass guitar or guitar in a series of improvisatory ensembles from 1978 to the present day....

, Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi is a multi-instrumentalist who in major plays electric guitar and drums, with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to a Jewish family originally from Iraq....

, Greg Kingston, David Watson, and Mike Cooper; violinist Veren Grogorov; John Murphy

John Murphy (musician)

John Murphy , sometimes credited as "Jonh Murphy", is an Australian drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumental session musician who has played in numerous Australian and British post-punk, ambient and industrial music groups...

's Psychic Date project; koto

Koto (musical instrument)

The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...

 player Satshki Odamura; jazz / punk outfit Lazy; a performance of John Zorn

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

s Locus Solus and Cobra "game pieces"; Loop Orchestra; Jay Katz; Alphabet Dream Noise; Rik Rue; Compression 100; Phoebe Jeebee; Galaxy Vamp; Deano Merino; Nasty Party] improvisation ensemble austraLYSIS

Roger Dean (musician)

Roger Thornton Dean is a British-Australian musician, academic, biochemist and cognitive scientist.He is married to poet, writer, musician and academic Hazel Anne Smith.-Music:...

; Chris Townend; Julian Knowles

Julian Knowles

Julian Knowles is an Australian composer and performer, specialising in new and emerging technologies. His creative work spans the fields of composition for theatre, dance, film and television, electronic music, sound and new media arts, popular music and record production...

; Mesh; Azif Anon; the Charles Ives Singers; Anthony Maher; Bill McCoy Quintet; Antediluvian Rocking Horse

Antediluvian Rocking Horse

Antediluvian Rocking Horse is an audio project maintained by two core artists credited as DJ2 and DJ3. DJ2 is Paul Wain, a sculptor and graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. DJ3 is Susan King, a collage artist, writer and Anti-copyright advocate. Composer Ollie Olsen is also credited as a...

; Brass Knuckle; Louis Burdett; Artheary; Wake Up And Listen; Arne Hanna's Computer Spectacular; Thierry G. R; Peeled Hearts Paste; Rubbercity; Hunter & Lacy; Fucka; and Chris Abrahams

Chris Abrahams

Chris Abrahams is a Sydney-based pianist, best known for his jazz work.Abrahams has been a member of the Benders, the Laughing Clowns, The Sparklers and The Necks. He has recorded several solo albums, as well as collaborations with Melanie Oxley from the Sparklers...

.

1998

1998's festival featured Greg Turkington; Masahiro Koyanagi; Jad Fair

Jad Fair

Jad Fair is an American singer, guitarist and graphic artist, most famous for being a founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese.-Biography:In 1974, with his brother David, Jad Fair founded the lo-fi group Half Japanese...

; Martin Klapper; Empirical; Mrs. Green; Parmentier

Parmentier (band)

Parmentier were a short-lived electronic music band from New Zealand, based in Australia. It was founded in 1996 by Rosy Parlane and Dion Workman . They toured, then released two albums in 1998.-Discography:...

; Pleasant Livers; the Jaunties; KK Null

KK Null

KK Null is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist. He began as a guitarist, but soon added composer, singer, electronic musician and drummer to his list of talents, and also studied with the Butoh workshop....

 with David Brown

David Brown (Australian musician)

David Brown is a musician from Melbourne, Australia, who has played bass guitar or guitar in a series of improvisatory ensembles from 1978 to the present day....

; Greg Kingston with Rik Rue; Chris Abrahams

Chris Abrahams

Chris Abrahams is a Sydney-based pianist, best known for his jazz work.Abrahams has been a member of the Benders, the Laughing Clowns, The Sparklers and The Necks. He has recorded several solo albums, as well as collaborations with Melanie Oxley from the Sparklers...

 with Tony Buck

Tony Buck

Tony Buck is a drummer and percussionist. He graduated from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music , becoming involved in the Australian jazz scene....

, Shelly Hirsch and Michael Sheridan; Sportsbra; Roger Dean

Roger Dean (musician)

Roger Thornton Dean is a British-Australian musician, academic, biochemist and cognitive scientist.He is married to poet, writer, musician and academic Hazel Anne Smith.-Music:...

 with Hazel Smith and Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi is a multi-instrumentalist who in major plays electric guitar and drums, with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to a Jewish family originally from Iraq....

; Lee and Gary Butler; Lester Vat; Snuff Puppet Band; Greg Kingston Big Band; Jon Rose

Jon Rose

Jon Rose is an Australian violinist born in the UK in 1951. Rose began playing violin at age 7 after winning a music scholarship to King's School in Rochester. For over 35 years, Rose has been at the sharp end of new, improvised, and experimental music and media...

; Pealed Hearts Paste; Minit; Blunderbuss; Bruce Lacy 3; Bill McCoy Omniverse Orchestra; Crowded Foxhole; Michael Avenaim and Louis Peake; Eddie Bronson with Steve Elkins, Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi is a multi-instrumentalist who in major plays electric guitar and drums, with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to a Jewish family originally from Iraq....

, and Robbie Avenaim; Daz G. Moore with Serge Emroll; Greg Kingston; Explosion of Memory; Funky Terrorist; Lint; Mutante Frequante; Intense Soundz of the Deep; Mummu Chao; Pink Virgins; Phoebe Jeebee; Lump in Your Throat; Shronk; and Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi is a multi-instrumentalist who in major plays electric guitar and drums, with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to a Jewish family originally from Iraq....

 with Robbie Avenaim, Dion Workman

Dion Workman

Dion Workman is a musician from New Zealand. Throughout the mid 1990s he was a member of the trio Thela with Rosy Parlane and Dean Roberts. After Thela dissolved in the late 1990s, Workman and Parlane moved to Melbourne, Australia, and recorded under the name Parmentier, as well as founding the...

, and Rosy Parlane

Rosy Parlane

Rosy Parlane is an electronic musician from New Zealand, based in London since 2000. He was in the New Zealand trio Thela, then went on a solo career, as well as co-founding the Sigma Editions record label.-Overview:...

.

2000

2000's festival featured Fennesz; Pita

Pita

Pita or pitta is a round pocket bread widely consumed in many Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Balkan cuisines. It is prevalent in Greece, the Balkans the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula and Turkey. The "pocket" in pita bread is created by steam, which puffs up the dough...

; Farmers Manual

Farmers Manual

Farmers Manual is an electronic music and visual art group, founded in Vienna in the beginning of the nineties. The core members of the collective are Mathias Gmachl, Stefan Possert, Oswald Berthold, Gert Brantner and Nik Gaffney...

 side-project Skot; Rehberg & Bauer; Neil Hamburger

Neil Hamburger

Neil Hamburger is a standup comedian character played by comedian and musician Gregg Turkington.-Style:Hamburger's live act, which is quite different from his many albums, features a barrage of question/answer jokes aimed often at celebrity targets, including Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, The Red...

; Keith Rowe

Keith Rowe

Keith Rowe is an English free improvisation tabletop guitarist and painter. Rowe is a founding member of both the hugely influential AMM in the mid-1960s and M.I.M.E.O. Having trained as a visual artist, Rowe's paintings have been featured on most of his own albums...

; Simon Wickham-Smith

Simon Wickham-Smith

Simon Wickham-Smith is a British musician, translator, academic and sometime astrologer. He first came to the attention of the experimental music underground with the release of Lake, a collaboration with Richard Youngs issued under the moniker R!!!S!!!...

; Lines; turntablist ensemble Techno Met Storingen; D. Haines; Rosy Parlane

Rosy Parlane

Rosy Parlane is an electronic musician from New Zealand, based in London since 2000. He was in the New Zealand trio Thela, then went on a solo career, as well as co-founding the Sigma Editions record label.-Overview:...

; Minit; Deck Collectors; How the Yabby Lost its Skin; Louie Burdett with Greg Kingston and Jon Rose

Jon Rose

Jon Rose is an Australian violinist born in the UK in 1951. Rose began playing violin at age 7 after winning a music scholarship to King's School in Rochester. For over 35 years, Rose has been at the sharp end of new, improvised, and experimental music and media...

; Rainer Linz; DJ Dexter; Pimmon

Pimmon

Pimmon is the recording name of Australian musician Paul Gough. He has released records on labels such as Fat Cat Records, Fällt, Tigerbeat6, Staalplaat and Staubgold, and collaborated with Keith Rowe and Oren Ambarchi, among others....

; the Honourable Tinkle-Tinkle; Testicle Candy vs. Curse ov Dialect

Curse Ov Dialect

Curse Ov Dialect is a Melbourne, Australia based music group. It was the first Australian and Australian Accented hip-hop outfit to score a record deal in the United States with 2003 album Lost in the Real sky, on Los Angeles Indie Label Mush Records...

; Amanda Stewart with Greg Kingston and Rik Rue; APT; Tekkahada; Dr Metagroove (Roger Dean

Roger Dean (musician)

Roger Thornton Dean is a British-Australian musician, academic, biochemist and cognitive scientist.He is married to poet, writer, musician and academic Hazel Anne Smith.-Music:...

 and Greg White); Poo Touchers; Gate; The Klaw (aka: Snawklor); Martin Ng and Jim Denley; Dworzec; Phoebe Jeebee; Max Lyandvert; Menstruation Sisters; and Poppenrosentein.