Written from the perspective of two people currently involved in experimental and electronic music in Australia, this chapter provides an overview of some of the key movements and works in the genre, from the twentieth century to the present day. Focusing primarily on music that exploits technology and experimental approaches that progress innovation in art music contexts, it highlights some of the diverse practitioners – performers, composers, improvisers, sound artists, and instrument makers – who have pushed the boundaries of what is possible, often blurring the lines between art forms in the process. While it is unable to provide an exhaustive historical or contemporary account of the innovations that have been achieved here, or those responsible, the selected representative survey should serve to contextualise Australia’s contributions to electronic and experimental music, demonstrating our reputation for presenting ‘mavericks’ to the music world.

This chapter explores a range of approaches, motivations, and sounding results of working with electronics, and in doing so offers tools and methods to decolonise existing, institution-centred histories of music in this genre. The chapter concludes with three specific examples of contemporary musicians at the cutting-edge of work in this area.

This chapter explores the evolution of the djent subgenre from the perspective of the musical, technological and environmental factors that have shaped its identity. The chapter considers the early circumstances of djent’s emergence during the early mid−2000s, with particular reference to the online culture which contributed to its wider transmission and proliferation. Key musical influences are also discussed, including djent’s roots in progressive metal and the work of bands such as Meshuggah and SikTh, as well as the subgenre’s interaction with electronic music aesthetics and popular music. A principal focus of the chapter is on the role of emerging digital technologies, particularly Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) and digital amplifier and drum kit modelling software, in the formation of djent’s musical and sonic characteristics. Finally, the chapter considers djent’s position as a subgenre within modern metal music and evaluates, with reference to the critical reception literature, the debates that persist concerning its legitimacy within metal.

Serialism is often canonically pinned to a few mid-century acoustic pieces, but this textbook definition is unnecessarily narrow. Would it be possible to consider computer music, EDM, and hip hop as serial, in some way? This essay argues that a ‘serial attitude’ emerges in the dialectic between analogue and digital ways of musicking. Electronic technologies – from generators to drum machines – crucially mediate such attitudes and behaviours. In sum, serial attitudes shape and are shaped by technological affordances. Case studies include the analogue electronic studio of the WDR, early computer music laboratories at Utrecht, Bell Labs, and Columbia-Princeton, and the vernacular musics of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Afrika Bambaataa. I explore resonances between these disparate scenes, while also arguing for their particularity. This essay rethinks serialism as a practice imbricated with technology, extending beyond the narrow confines of high-art academic institutions.

This chapter discusses the work of Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze. Both were founding members of Ash Ra Tempel, a psychedelic rock band active in 1970–75. Their self-titled debut album, released in 1971, is recognised as one of the classic recordings of Krautrock. Later, Ash Ra Tempel would have a deep influence on space rock, electronic music, and ambient music. The chapter provides an overview of the evolution of Ash Ra Tempel, its successor Ashra, and traces the solo careers of Göttsching and Schulze, with a focus on Göttsching. His career spans from the era of Krautrock through the heyday of the electronic Berlin School in the mid-1970s and the birth of electronic dance music in the 1980s. Since 1972, Klaus Schulze has also produced an imaginative and unique body of musical work as a solo artist. Besides several collaborations, he created many pioneering electronic solo albums in the 1970s, and his active career has endured five decades until the present day.

The influence of black artists and music genres on Krautrock‘s pioneers fed directly into the conception of electro, Detroit techno, and Chicago house, largely developed by exponents of black communities in their respective localities. A universal funk, present in the black music that inspired early Krautrock artists, through to Kraftwerk and their industrielle Volksmusik, permeated through to black communities in America. The programmed funk of Kraftwerk‘s automated computer music spoke to black pioneers in New York, Chicago, and Detroit, sparking the development of ground-breaking genres such as electro, house, and techno. Barnes explores the lineage and transnational influence of Krautrock on America‘s black communities via the tributaries of German free jazz and krautfusion.

In terms of musical style, the sizeable catalogue of music that falls under the label of Krautrock is as diverse as it is experimental. The difficulty in pinning down a specific ‘sound‘ for this diverse body of music can be traced to its roots in the period of cultural revival in the 1950s and 1960s. The chapter discusses how the desire to create a new German identity, distanced from the crimes of the Nazi present and freer from the influence of American culture, was reflected in this music: Krautrock musicians began to abandon the characteristics of both Anglo-American popular musics such as beat and rock ‘n’ roll, and the prevailing German style of the time, Schlager, endeavouring to create something entirely original. The chapter demonstrates how Krautrock was initially better defined by what it was not, rather than what it specifically was. However, these radically different approaches to newness shared certain characteristics. As the chapter argues, Krautrock musicians embraced innovative approaches to instrumentation, timbre, the voice, texture, and form, generating a new musical vocabulary that they could call their own.