“We’ve always been about trying to encourage people to try contemporary music for the first time,” says Jo Ross. Certainly there are plenty of people who think contemporary music is not for them, but glancing through the brochure for OCM’s new season, there seems to be plenty to entice along even the most doubting of Thomases.

Exciting, intriguing and experimental, this series of events challenges popular conceptions about musical styles and presentation, and features artists at the forefront of the contemporary music scene.

Tomorrow night, electronica meets traditional Javanese music, as electric duo Plaid joins forces with the Southbank Gamelan Players.

“Plaid will be using their skills as electronic DJs to sample sounds of the gamelan, re-loop it back into the mix and build up textures, and augment the sound of the gamelan,” Jo explains. “The Gamelan will also be doing Javanese music, and Plaid will be doing some pieces of their own as well. So it should be an interesting mix.”

A poignant evening follows on October 5, as a number of local musicians gather to celebrate the life of Kate Garrett, an Oxford-based musician who died of breast cancer last year, aged 37.

One of Kate’s greatest achievements was to set up a number of projects at the Ark T Centre at Temple Cowley, most notably the Young Women’s Band Project, some of whose members will be performing at the concert.

Headlining the concert is folk musician Chris Wood, while Kate’s husband, cellist Barney Morse Wood, will also be appearing, as well as many others.

“It’s going to be an amazing, very emotional evening,” says Jo. “As well as being a memorial to Kate, the idea is to raise money for the Ark T Centre, specifically to try and re-equip the recording studio for the Young Women’s Band Project. The North Wall is giving us the space free, and all the musicians are playing free.”

On October 12, as part of OCM’s education and outreach programme, there will be a concert at the newly-restored Warneford Chapel, run in conjunction with Artscape and the OBMH Spiritual and Pastoral Care team, featuring cellist Emily Burridge and Norwegian folk singer Unni Løvlid.

This is the latest in a series of concerts that OCM have been running for the last couple of years, and offers musical experiences for those who might otherwise not have access to it.

“It’s a safe environment, and close enough for them to pop in if they don’t feel well enough to go out to a concert,” explains Jo. “The acoustics in the chapel are gorgeous, so the voice and cello are going to sound really lovely.”

A particularly intriguing evening will be Toy Music on October 22, which features Pierre Bastien and Male Instrumenty, both of whom specialise in playing miniature instruments.

Bastien has achieved fame in his native France for his tiny Meccano-style, mechanised instruments, and for the haunting delicacy of his music.

Polish band Male Instrumenty specialises in miniature pianos, children’s toys and bells, and their music is infused with the styles of jazz and contemporary classical music.

Elsewhere in the season, there are performances by jazz groups trioVD and Polar Bear, electr-oacoustic pop band Sleeps in Oysters (who will be launching their new album), Cuban classical guitarist Ahmed Dickinson with Trio Mestizo and, by popular demand, the return of the Lucky Dip Disco for under-sevens.

On November 26, you can get into the Christmas spirit with OCM by joining a promenade through Oxford’s streets — provided you have a copy of Unsilent Night by New York composer Phil Kline (downloadable free from unsilentnight.com, or contact OCM for a tape or CD) and something portable to play it on.

The event is part of the city’s Christmas Lights Night, and is based on an idea that Kline started in New York nearly 20 years ago.

For Jo, it is one of the highlights of the OCM season.

“It’s a lovely piece of music, with lots of bells and choirs, and I think it’s going to be very atmospheric and Christmassy,” she says. “Somebody I know went to the one in New York, and said it was quite spine-tingling, and a lovely communal experience.”

The season closes with a two-week run of Extended Play by Polish composer Janek Schaefer, who was inspired by the survivors of the Second World War to produce a work of hope and gratitude. At the core of the work is a Polish tango, reworked and produced across three sets of Crosley record players.

“It creates a beautiful chord, and you get really absorbed in it,” says Jo. “Schaefer’s pieces are always visually very arresting and beautiful. We’re taking over The North Wall for two weeks, so you can just go in and chill out and spend some time in there.”

lFor full details of OCM’s current season, and to book tickets and listen to artists online, visit ocmevents.org.