Roger Kleier premiers his new quartet, “El Pocho Loco”, with an emphasis on noisy guitar instrumentals, improvisation, and electronic sound manipulations.
Roger Kleier (guitar), Annie Gosfield (keyboards), Trevor Dunn (bass), Ches Smith (drums and percussion).
Roger Kleier is a composer, guitarist, and improviser who began playing electric guitar at age thirteen after discovering Captain Beefheart and Jimi Hendrix on the radio airwaves of Los Angeles. He studied composition at North Texas State University and the University of Southern California, and has developed a unique style that draws equally from improvisation, contemporary classical music, and the American guitar traditions of blues, jazz, and rock. Much of his compositional work involves the development of a broader vocabulary for the electric guitar through the use of extended techniques and digital sound manipulation. He has also composed new works for soloists and chamber groups.
Roger has collaborated with Annie Gosfield, Carl Stone, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Joan Jeanrenaud, David Moss, Davey Williams, Phill Niblock, John Zorn, Ikue Mori, David Krakauer, Stan Ridgway, and many others. With various ensembles Roger has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. His discography includes CDs on the Tzadik, CRI, Intakt, Atavistic, Wergo, ReR Megacorp, EMF, and Geffen labels. His two solo CDs are “KlangenBang”, released on the Rift label, and “Deep Night, Deep Autumn” released by the Starkland label. He has a new CD to be released on the Innova label called “The Night Has Many Hours”.
Roger currently lives in New York City.
