Asklemmy

I don't think all these are contemporary but as someone who loves post rock and instrumental music here are some artists that make it into my playlist pretty regularly. Hope this is helpful! The ones near the top I probably listen to more regularly right now but it tends to rotate.

• Sleepmakeswaves
• We Lost the Sea
• Explosions in the Sky
• Codes in the Clouds
• Ef
• Russian Circles
• Collapse Under the Empire
• Mogwai
• Secret Gardens
• Red Sparowes
• Moonlit Sailor
• Maybeshewill
• 65daysofstatic
• Caspian
• Sleep Dealer
• If These Trees Could Talk
• Balmorhea
• God is an Astronaut
• The Evpatoria Report
• Sigur Ros
• False Horizon
• This Will Destroy You
• pg.lost
• There's A Light
• Oh Hiroshima
• Tides from Nebula

EDIT: got around to checking my library and have a few more.

• Distant Dream
• Saor
• Those Who Ride With Giants
• For Giants
• U1327
• The Best Pessimist
• Saxon Shore
• Dorena
• The End of the Ocean
• Random Forest
• Joy Wants Eternity
• Paint the Sky Red
• Eldamar
• we.own.the.sky
• Eleventh Vibration
• Shadow of Io
• Jake Eves
• The Last Sighs of the Wind

In hindsight I don't know if a giant list is the most useful thing but it's here if you want it.

Godspeed you! Black Emperor

Edit: I’m not old, but old enough that I only really remember their first round of albums. No idea what the newer ones are like, sadly. Just never got around to listening.

Tycho, UTAH, Attom, lots more in my instrumental playlist. These are mostly chilled or electronic type genre songs, but I also have a "djentstrumental" playlist if that's your jam, with artists like For Giants, Andromida, Returning We Hear the Larks (a personal favorite), and more.

Ratatat

Aphex Twin & Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Explosions in the Sky

Space Knife

A lot of post-rock bands might be good for you. Usually atmospheric/instrumental music played with typical rock instruments and little to no vocals.

Some of my favorites are Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, El Ten Eleven, and Sigur Rós.

(although Sigur Rós technically features vocals but it’s a language of nonsense sounds the lead singer Jónsi made up called Hopelandic, so it’s instrumental-voice I guess??)

LORN

Some metal and metal-adjacent instrumental bands I listen to a lot:

• Sunn O)))
• Russian Circles
• Pelican
• Lethe
• Explosions in the Sky

Polyphia is great as was already suggested. If you want to go heavier, try Animals as Leaders. If you want to go jazzier, try Snarky Puppy.

Definitely check out Khruangbin! Great music, very few vocals. They are awesome live and recorded. Hope you enjoy.

Polyphia

Apocalyptica. Metal on the cello. They sometimes have s guest vocalist. I like their self-titled album.

Phamie Gow. Pianist and harpist. Maybe too orchestral. I turn to the Beyond the Milky Way album oftenwhen working out studying.

Mary Lattimore. Experimental harpist. I've been enjoying her latest album, West Kensington, with guitarist Paul Sukeena.

Kelly Moran. Experimental pianist Can't recommend her album Ultraviolet enough.

Burial. For some chilled, glitchy dubstep.

The Comet is Coming. For some psych jazz.

Moderat. For some house electronica.

Uboa. For some droney, noisy, doomy metal.

George Clanton. For some synthpop vapourwave. His latest album is great.

In no particular order:

Ryuichi Sakamoto (particularly Async, and his albums with Alva Noto)

Aphex Twin

Apparat (though he does also feat singers on some albums)

Four Tet

Squarepusher

Ørdrop Wolkenscheidt

MGMT

Sevish

Matt Elliott (very few sung bits)

Paco de Lucía

Guilhem Desq

Jordi Savall

Ledetraad

Bremer & McCoy

Athletic Progression

Psykovsky

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Kettel

Secede

R mccarthy

Sungazer

999999999

Susumu Yokota

Caravan Palace

These do fall into the vg category but it's more edm / retro than "epic orchestral":

Scattle

Chris Christodoulou

Toby Fox

The Toxic Avenger

Jake Kaufman

The term for this would be 'instrumental', which I only mention because it might help you find what you want. If you search streaming platforms for '[some genre] instrumental' it might turn up a playlist.

Here's some favourite albums of mine, which are 'ambient' so you might find them terribly boring, but they certainly are instrumental:

• 1 2 3 - Pole
• And Their Refinement of the Decline - Stars of the Lid
• Plume - Loscil
• The Sound of Lights When Dim - Slow Dancing Society

Post rock post rock post rock post rock

Explosions in the Sky

Mogwai

Sigur Ros

The Album Leaf

This Will Destroy You

try these on for size and see if the genre takes you like it took me. I tried to include some stuff that is more traditional rock in form and instrumentation and some that is a bit more experimental in that regard.

Have you heard of Khruangbin?

Herbie Hancock, Snarky Puppy

I listen to Ghost Data and Porter Robinson lots. Both are electronic music, but I like them more than Zedd or Madeon because they sound more unique.

Ghost Data's chord progressions are unique but repetitive (I don't know many other artists that have a chord progression or vocal idea like that of "Queen of Knives", so it's unique, but the main chord progression of "Queen of Knives" doesn't change all that much throughout the song, so it's repetitive). I like that there's sonic variety while exploring singular ideas fully, like how the main melody of "Thy Flesh Undone" repeats through different instrumentations.

Porter Robinson stuff is pretty great because it sounds more emotional than most EDM I hear. It can sometimes have words, sometimes not. The Worlds album is more of an ambient and emotional/inspiring twist on EDM; specifically I'm thinking of "Goodbye to a World" and "Lionhearted" as uniquely happy songs.

I give an honorary mention to "Antirrhinum" by MALO because its rhythms are pretty cool and confused me a lot at first. It was entertaining trying to figure them out.

I'm a metal head, so these will be in a similar vein, though there is techno and more relaxed stuff at the end. Might add links if I remember later:

Chon, Animals as leaders, Polyphia, Plini, Syncatto, Intervals, Meganeko, Broke For Free

Plini.

Is Rock okay? If so: And So I Watch You From Afar

A few I can think of while going through my music library:

• Ochre
• Makeup And Vanity Set
• Blanck Mass
• Carpenter Brut
• Danger
• Magic Sword
• Ratatat
• MASTER BOOT RECORD
  Their capitalization, not mine :)

Some are relaxing and others are loud and fast.

how recent is contemporary? how tolerable is EDM? Cuz the first thing that comes to mind is Deadmau5

The following can be classed as instrumental, post-rock or post-metal:

• Russian Circles
• Caspian
• ISIS (the band)
• Sigur Ros
• Mogwai
• God Speed You! Black Emperor
• Blanket
• Vaudlow

I can recommend Solar Fields, although they did the Soundtrack to Mirror's Edge, their albums are pretty nice.

Also (but not really contemporary): Casiopea - Japanese Fusion Jazz. Sounds like the soundtrack to Gran Turismo, but still.

The Omnific

Polyphia

I enjoy listening to The HU. They are a Mongolian Metal/rock band. Most of their songs have lyrics, but it’s all in Mongolian so I just treat the vocals as another instrument and it may as well be instrumental to me.

Joe Satriani, Jeff Beck, Keith Jarrett.

miles davis esp like bitches brew type era

Badbadnotgood

Polyphia, The Omnific, Animals as Leaders

First two that sprung to mind were -

Meute

And

Chinese Man

RATATAT has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Love almost every single song of theirs.

And so I watch you from afar

Toe

Com Truise

The American Dollar

I saw you said you like some electronic music, so I'll throw in Prefuse 73 (or really, any of Scott Heren's pseudonyms) and Infected Mushroom. Prefuse 73 has some voice samples but is largely electronic/trip-hop, while Infected Mushroom has a decent split between songs with lyrics and songs without, so I recommend just grabbing an album and picking out what works for you.

I like Yosi Horikawa.

Here are a few examples:

• Bubbles
• Stars
• Crossing (don't play this one when you're near traffic and wearing headphones)

Guts Pie Earshot are one of my favorite bands - just Cello & Drums (except in their first years), for example Butterfly

The Comet Is Coming - for some psychedelic/jazz/rock, Tiny Desk Concert

Space Rock - An Interstellar Traveller's Guide is one of my favorite compilation albums (so not really an artist but a bunch of artists)

Some more space rock: Yuri Gagarin

Die Wilde Jagd have some lyrics, but also many instrumental tracks, like Austerlitz.

When it comes to techno, there is obviously a lot of choice, I like e.g. Ellen Alien Lism for a more ambient vibe

I like to listen to synthwave when driving and I can recommend 'Rivera Rivera' and 'Inexdra' as well as 'Cartridge 1987'.

The latter has some great songs that tell a story without any words.

Ever heard of a crab rave?

Gidge, Bonobo, Nicolas Jaar, Nils Frahm

Polyphia, Casiopea (Mint Jams album)

If you like guitar, Tom Anello.

stuff i've been listening to lately:

• andy stott
• gas
• forest swords
• boards of canada
• tortoise