Björk
Flitting between London, Reykjavik and Manhattan, Iceland's queen of the night has been singing round the digital campfire with Matmos, Matthew Herbert and others on her new Vespertine album. By David Toop

Q-Bert
After being banned from competitions and perfecting every turntable technique there is, the former Invisbl Skratch Pikl avoids the fast-faster-fastest cul de sac by making movies and learning how to play with silence. By Peter Shapiro

Pandit Pran Nath
Marcus Boon follows Pran Nath's footsteps from Lahore to New York to discover how this enigmatic figure became a guru to many of America's postwar avant garde, including La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Jon Hassell

Stereolab
They may have ditched the labcoats and the analogue drone, but Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadler's troupe of tone travellers still trip the light fantastic somewhere between the mainstream and the avant garde. By John Mulvey

Mike Patton
The Fanotmas vocalist, serial collaborator andd head of the Ipecac label attempts to identify tracks by Boredoms, Slayer, Massive Attack, New Kingdom, John Coltrane and more. Tested by Peter Shapiro

Tangents: Horrible Noise
20 years after Lester Bangs's "Reasonable Guide To Horrible Noise", Mark Sinker wonders whether, in a culture built on sound and fury, the gonzo journo's trash aesthetic still signifies anything at all

Stephan Mathieu
Philip Sherburne speaks with the German frequency liberator

Gregg Bendian
The jazz percussionist finds inspiration from the comics of Jack Kirby and discovers the Fourth World. By Edwin Pouncey

Radu Malfatti
The Austrian trombonist finds a quiet strength. By Dan Warburton

Lightning Bolt
Lee Gardner meets the crazy metal thunder of the drums 'n' bass duo from Providence

Global Ear
Charles Leonard discovers a caucus of dissident Afrikaners in a former heartland of South Africa's police state

Epiphanies
Crass's empowering avant punk reminds Chris Sharp that anarchy in the UK is in rude health

In Print
New York Is Now: The New Wave Of Free Jazz, by Phil Freeman; John Coltrane: Jazz, Racism And Resistance, by Martin Smith; Psychotic Reactions And Carburetor Dung, by Lester Bangs; Sonic Boom: Napster, P2P And The Battle For The Future Of Music, by John Alderman; The Music Of Toru Takemitsu, by Peter Burt; Japanese Independent Music, edited by Franck Stofer; In Cold Sweat: Interviews With Really Scary Musicians, by Thomas Wictor

Ether Talk
At the Acoustic Space Lab symposium in Latvia, a crack squad of international media artists and scientists took over a former Soviet spy station to tune into the harmony of the spears. By Mukul

On Location
Patti Smith, London Ocean, UK; Jazz Em Agosto, Lisbon Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal; Fuji Rock Festival, Naeba, Japan; Koneisto Festival, Turku Kupittaa Park, Finland; Fun-Da-Mental + Natacha Atlas, London Scala, UK