In Sunday's Calendar, I profiled three young noise-aligned composers and songwriters in L.A., Zola Jesus, Sun Araw and Infinite Body. Each made his or her reputation playing difficult yet uncannily pretty music in off-the-grid venues, and each is shaping the scene in a meditative new direction from the more violent, guitar-oriented bands such as No Age and HEALTH that have ruled in recent years.

But for a broader perspective on avant-garde noise music in L.A., I talked with composer John Wiese, a singular voice in local composition. Across scads of formats and a plethora of labels and projects, his howling electronic works recall both mind-bending suites from Xenakis and Ligeti, and the trashy, antagonistic punk of the Smell scene. Below is our full interview, conducted by e-mail. He just wrapped up tours with Liars and No Age in Europe and played a couple L.A. dates earlier this month.

There seems to be a growing audience for explicitly "difficult" music. What do think younger fans are getting from noise and avant-garde genres that might be missing in more straightforward pop or indie music?

Extremes in the spectrum exist in everything -- that's what makes the middle the middle. I think most people venture far out at least once in a while -- life is complex and has many faces, feelings, experiences, etc.

Zola Jesus, a.k.a. Nika Roza Danilova, has a voice like a savage animal. You can’t help but want it to get close to you, but to let it creep near might also guarantee that you get shredded from limb to limb. Now we understand, just a little better, the kind of paradox that must’ve enthralled “Grizzly Man” Timothy Treadwell.

Over the last couple of years, Danilova, 21, has churned out an impressive body of work with her raging stentorian vocals as the star, including 2009's full-length debut, “The Spoils,” and “Stridulum,” an EP that came out earlier this year that marked a shift from distortion-laden experimentation to a more direct songwriting style.

Opening her midnight crypt to a little dance-friendly air gained her some new fans, such as Swedish dark heart Karin Dreijer Andersson, better known as Fever Ray, who invited Danilova to open for her in Europe, as well as accolades from the New York Times and Pitchfork.

Danilova’s already back with another EP, “Valusia,” released Tuesday, that builds on her brooding but classically informed style, something like the goddess of death performing at the opera. Zola Jesus is right on time to ride the latest wave of goth proffered by Mercury Prize winners the xx, who gave Zola an opening spot on their latest U.S. tour. Thankfully, the xx and ZJ do not sully their goth with horror-show theatrics. Instead, call it minimalist bleak, with an oversize heart beating wildly underneath it all. The song below, “Lightsick,” is one of Zola Jesus’ most profound works: not much more than the thinnest damask of synth and a piano thumping around Danilova’s wounded yet strong vocals.

04 Lightsick

But for all the force of her light-smothering alto, Danilova is really a nice Midwestern girl from northern Wisconsin who values hard work and humility. Settling in Los Angeles only a month ago, Danilova is rightfully freaked out by Hollywood. “The obsession with fame and celebrity and other people,” she mused. “I just can’t wrap my head around it.” She’ll be playing tonight at the Echo, mercifully off-path for the paparazzo, with Obstacle Corpse and Broken Spindles.

May Zola's presence in Los Angeles usher in the gray-sky fall we’ve all been waiting for. Hopefully, the city won't do anything dreadful -- like make her happy.

--Margaret Wappler

You just graduated this summer from UW-Madison, where you studied French and philosophy. How do either of those influence Zola Jesus, if it all?

Everything influences my music subconsciously, because Zola Jesus is very personal and intimate. It pulls out who I am as a person. And especially studying philosophy has really made a huge impact on how I think, how I feel, how I live my life. It penetrates the music through the lyrics because it’s a lot about how I view the world.

Who are some of your favorite philosophers?

Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Dosteyevsky. I like bleak philosophy. I like Kierkegaard. I like philosophers who are realistic, and who approach humanity as a very animal or mammal concept, giving us humans the same kind of discretion as an animal. We are animals. I like reading about humans in that context. It comes out in my lyrics. I feel like when I’m writing music it’s very aggressive and very personal. I only write when I feel like I have something to say. In a sense, philosophy has inspired me and influenced me to feel like I have something to say.