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Currently residing in New York City, Roger is a guitarist, composer, and
improviser who began playing guitar at age thirteen after discovering Captain
Beefheart and Hendrix on the radio airwaves of Los Angeles. Born in 1958, he
studied composition at North Texas State University and the University of
Southern California, and while in school he developed a strong interest in
non-idiomatic improvisation. In 1981 Roger co-founded the Los Angeles
Improvisers Collective and organised and performed in numerous concert series
in the California area.
Roger has been involved in a wide variety of projects in his career including
working in and writing for many American new music groupings, composing music
for art installations, recording and producing 12 dance singles, session
work, and playing in free-wheeling improvisation ensembles. He has performed
and/or recorded with David Moss, Marc Ribot's Shrek, Davey Williams, LaDonna
Smith, Elliott Sharp, Ikue Mori, Carl Stone, Phill Niblock, Dave Tronzo, Leni
Stern, Samm Bennett, Tom Cora, Zeena Parkins, Erhard Hirt, Kato Hideki, Jim
Pugliese, Chris Cochrane, Stan Ridgway and others. With various ensembles and
solo Roger has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and
Australia.
Featured performances of his include New Music America, the Knitting Factory,
the Kitchen, Symphony Space NYC, Bang On A Can Festival at Lincoln Center NYC,
Taktlos Festival Switzerland, Roulette NYC, Experimental Intermedia NYC,
Quasimodo Berlin, the Rive de Gier Jazz Festival, Westwerk Hamburg, CUBA
Munster, KITO Bremen, Cafe Falb Nickelsdorf, Roxy Ulm, Paradiso Amsterdam, WUK
Vienna, ESC Graz, Alter Schlachthof Wels, Mills College San Francisco, New
Langton Arts San Francisco, FriSon Fribourg, K4 Ljubljana, Utopia Innsbruck,
The Institute of Architecture Venice, AKW Wurzburg, New Music Marathon Prague,
and the Audio Art Festival Cracow.
Roger has received grants for his compositions from the National Endowment for
the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, U.S. Artists at International Festivals,
and Meet the Composer. He has performed several times in live radio broadcasts
for various NPR and Pacifica affiliates, and has appeared on MTV, Top of the
Pops, and Old Grey Whistle Test. He has had recording contracts with MCA,
Island, and Profile records, and he has led composition and improvisation
workshops in the United States and the Czech Republic. Roger continues his
collaborations with longtime partner Annie Gosfield, performs solo and with
musicians from around the world, and has his first solo CD entitled
KlangenBang released on the Rift label.
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Selected discography:
KLANGENBANG solo and with others Rift CD 18
DYNER'S CLUB with Elliott Sharp Intakt CD 036
STATE OF THE UNION compilation project with others Atavistic CD ALP 69
THE BIG OFF with Samm Bennett Knitting Factory Works CD 126
HONKY TONK TRAIN OF THOUGHT with Annie Gosfield LAIC 003
THE NOHO SESSIONS with Annie Gosfield, LaDonna Smith, & Davey Williams LAIC
002
THE BIG HEAT with Stan Ridgway IRS CD X2 0777 7 13125 26
Roger Kleier's guitars burn up a huge vocabulary of pungent timbres and
compositional attacks. It's all there: from Beefheartian slide & fuzzed
psychedelic leads to percussive soundscapes and orchestral feedback.
--Elliott Sharp
Adventurous guitar fans and anyone with ears wide open should seek this out.
--Option
"Impressive stuff!"
--The Wire
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