The 30 Most Intriguing Musical Artists of 2023 (Part 3 of 3)

Here are the final 10 names on my survey of rule-breaking talents

I want to thank the many readers who responded to my invitation to share spicy hot takes. We got more than one thousand comments in just the first 24 hours—and the heat level was high on the Scoville scale.

I could easily fill up an article with the best comments. But it’s more fun for you to read them and pick your own favorites.

Today I’m sharing my own unconventional opinions. Below is the final installment of my survey of the 30 most intriguing musical artists of 2023. Many of these choices are unusual, but every artist here is wickedly creative—although few of them get covered in the mainstream music media.

Click here for parts one and two.

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The 30 Most Intriguing Musical Artists of 2023 (Part 3 of 3)

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Peter Bufano

Peter Bufano composes circus music. That’s a lovely genre—except that there aren’t many circuses coming to town. That doesn’t discourage Bufano, who started his career with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey, widely known as “the Greatest Show on Earth” until it wasn’t. (RBBB shut down in 2017). But Bufano knows that there’s always a clown or acrobat troupe touring somewhere, and continues to demonstrate his mastery of the idiom. It’s not easy to create the right mix of drama, comedy, and forward momentum necessary for these entertainments, but nobody does it better than Bufano (whose name appropriately translates into English as buffoon). For proof, check out his recent score for "Sunset Circus," a NY-based traveling show produced by Parallel Exit.

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Electronicos Fantasticos

This Japanese ensemble bridges the gulf between analog and digital music—and in the most provocative way possible. They ditch all the off-the-shelf software and canned loops, and instead turn boring electric devices into musical instruments. In their capable hands, almost anything—a barcode reader, a fan, an old rotary dial telephone, an out-dated television set, etc.—can start singing. I’ve long felt that we underestimate the inherent musicality of the world around us, and Electronicos Fantasticos make this same point in a radical way. Their captivating videos reach an enthusiastic audience far beyond the usual suspects who follow ‘new music’.

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Wojciech Rusin

When musicians list their influences they usually serve up familiar names likes Hendrix and Miles. But Wojciech Rusin claims he is influenced by gnosticism and alchemy, along with obscure Eastern European mythology and Renaissance singing. When he’s not trying to transmute lead into gold, Rusin makes his own wind instruments with 3D modelling technology. It’s not even clear that he considers himself a musician. (He will tell you that he is an “audio visual artist.”) I might even label him as a mystic. But his tracks sound so convincing that I’m keeping Rusin on my list of intriguing musicians. But the operative word here is intrigue.

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Yvette Young

Yvette Young is the guitar hero we need right now. But she might easily have never picked up the instrument. Young pursued painting and taught art before making her mark in music, and her first instruments were violin and piano. But while rehabilitating during a hospital stay, she decided to teach herself guitar by ear—and developed a sweet, fast style that will grab your ear too. She’s now performing with Covet, one of my favorite rock bands. But she’s just as comfortable riffing on video from her living room, or playing acoustic instrumentals at the park. But when fronting a band, Young’s music is danceable and radio friendly. Her career already has mojo, but with this much talent the upside potential is sky high.

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