August 24: International Strange Music Day. Photo © Dominik Vanyi/Unsplash

Every year, on this day, International Strange Music Day encourages listeners and music makers to step out of their lane and experience something new.

“Strange” in this case can mean either unfamiliar or bizarre – preferably both. The choice is entirely personal. You can share your discoveries or keep them to yourself. It doesn’t matter if you never want to hear that particular “strange” piece again. Ever. The whole point of the exercise is that you did.

International Strange Music Day was created by Patrick Grant, a Detroit-born American composer living and working in New York City. No stranger to the strange himself, his music moved from post-punk and post-minimal styles, into Balinese-inspired gamelan and microtonality, then to to ambient, electronic soundscapes involving multiple layers of acoustic and electronically amplified instruments.

Tilted Axes. Photo © jedibunny

In 2013, he curated a Guinness World Record-breaking performance of...