"Avant Prog" Recommendations

I must admit I don't know as much "avant prog" as I want to. I like Koenjihyakkei very much, but I don't know much more than them. OK, Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, Henry Cow, Art Bears, but not many more.

The sub-genre page says:

Avant-prog is generally considered to be more extreme and 'difficult' than other forms of progressive rock, though these terms are naturally subjective and open to interpretation. Common elements that may or may not be displayed by specific avant-prog artists include: - Regular use of dissonance and atonality. - Extremely complex and unpredictable song arrangements. - Free or experimental improvisation. - Fusion of disparate musical genres. - Polyrhythms and highly complex time signatures.

Now all that sounds good, except the part about free or experimental improvisation. I'm not looking for improvised music. Also I'm not looking for extremely slow music, or totally non-rock music like pure modern classical or jazz music. Though I like elements or influences from classical and jazz very much.
 
I would be thankful if you could recommend me some bands or artists based on these informations.

Great, thanks. I'm going to look up those albums.

Excellent choices, even though some of those albums are not, strictly speaking, RIO/Avant prog. Waiting for my partner in crime Ian to chime in, here's some more suggestions:

Miriodor - Avanti! (one of my favourite albums of the past 20 years, hands down)
Cheer-Accident - Fear Draws Misfortune (very eclectic)
Guapo - Five Suns (a true monster of an album, a must for anyone interested in contemporary RIO/Avant)
Alec K Redfearn and the Eyesores - Sister Death (utterly mesmerizing, dark Avant-Folk)
Aranis - Songs From Mirage (beautiful chamber-prog)
Five-Storey Ensemble - Not That City (closer to classical than rock, and gorgeous)
Secret Chiefs 3 - Book M (electronics meet Middle-Eastern music)

More to come soon!

Almost all the big bands named, great lists so far. 

Thank you all very much, I'll need some time to check it all out.

@schizoidman: These sound very good, especially Estradasphere and Farmers Market. Some of it reminds me of Bulgarian traditional music.

If you want to listen to some of the albums we recommended before buying them, the Italian label AltrOck
Records has all of its releases available on Bandcamp: http://altrockproductions.bandcamp.com/. All those albums are highly recommended (even if not all of them would qualify as Avant). Of course, in my own recommendations I forgot my own #1 album for 2014 - Ut Gret's fabulous Ancestor's Tale, which you will also find on the AltrOck Bandcamp page.

^Yup great rec Simon.

Edited by Guldbamsen - August 01 2015 at 13:48

I've found some interesting bands not yet in PA (begging for addition!) on pages of New Amsterdam Records:

Big Farm
http://bigfarm.bandcamp.com/album/big-farm

The Knells
http://theknells.bandcamp.com/album/the-knells


Edited by terramystic - August 02 2015 at 17:22

^ ya ain't kiddin' sista... the Knells rule man...