A perceptual assessment of sound in distant genres of today’s experimental music Riccardo Wanke CESEM - Centre for the Study of the Sociology and Aesthetics of Music, FCSH, NOVA University, Lisbon, Portugal. riccardowanke@gmail.com Abstract. This paper enquires into the ways in which listeners perceive certain practices of today’s experimental music. Trained and untrained listeners evalu- ate short musical excerpts coming from post–spectral and contemporary com- positions (G. F. Haas), as well as glitch and electronic music (Pan Sonic) but all belonging to a recognized aesthetic frame of references. The work explores the potential of semantic descriptors to define sound and examines the ability of participants to sort audio samples, express criteria and recognize common sonic characteristics. Moreover it reveals the difficulties that lie in expressing our perception of experimental music. In applying perceptual surveys for the devel- opment of comparative methods in musicology, this article shows that the recognition of a cross–genres perspective could pass through perceptual and empirical studies. Keywords. cross–genres studies, experimental music, listening survey, sound perception. 1 Introduction Today, experimental music is enormously diversified and different genres have some characteristics in common besides the distance of their cultural and social environ- ments [1]. Certain currents within post–spectralism, minimalism, sound art and elec- troacoustic music, glitch and IDM’s offshoots share similar perspectives in approach- ing sound. Focusing on these contexts, I proposed a sonic correlation among composi- tions of G. F. Haas, G. Verrando and B. Lang, and performers coming from inde- pendent scenes such as Pan Sonic, R. Ikeda and Raime [2]. These correspondences concern intrinsic characteristics of sound and similar practices like the use of complex spectra and periodic movements within globally rich and sculptural textures. This paper examines these correlations within perceptual studies. Taking benefit listening questionnaires, it is intended to investigate how distant genres of music with a similar approach to sound are perceived and to grasp how empirical data could be integrated with theoretical elements, supporting the definition of a cross–genres aesthetic. Many studies that consider verbal descriptions of music make use of several strategies moving between two approaches: on the one hand, some analytical assessments ex-