Clogs are four musicians from the U.S. and Australia whose work traverses time and place
…and through which seemingly disparate influences are seamlessly drawn in. They compose and improvise using sounds and textures from across the musical spectrum – the immediacy of folk and rock music, twisted Americana, the complexity of modern composition.
Their fifth album, The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton (2010) and companion EP, Veil Waltz (2010), were released to great acclaim following their previous album, Lantern (2006). The Creatures is their first album of songs after four primarily instrumental releases; a song-cycle composed by Padma Newsome for the group with extensive vocal work from Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond. Other guests include Sufjan Stevens, Aaron Dessner and Matt Berninger of The National and Osso String Quartet.
Clogs have performed at the 2013 Adelaide Festival, the 2012 Halifax Jazz Festival, the 2013 and 2011 Ecstatic Music Festivals and 2011 Barbican Centre's Reverberations Festival. Other noteworthy performances by the quartet have included the 2010 Big Ears Festival, a collaboration with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in 2009 at the Howard Gilman Opera House at BAM, and appearances at the 2007 and 2008 Sydney Festivals. They have performed at the Bang on a Can Marathon, MusicNow Festival, Wexner Center for the Arts, MFA Boston, and the Warhol Museum.
• Artist page at Brassland
• Clogs on Bandcamp
• Playlist on Spotify
Padma Newsome – Violin, Viola, Voice
Latest release:
The Vanity of trees, on New Amsterdam Records. Dreamy, imaginative, evoking the wild Australian landscape.
Projects:
PhD in-process at ANU Canberra researching Arts Recovery
Padma’s arrangement of A Perfect Day, by Brent McCleod
Thomas Kozumplik – Percussion
Latest releases:
Child of the Earth (un niño busca a Dios) and Time-Machine_music on Music Starts From Silence.
Thom composes and performs with the collaborative ensemble, Loop 2.4.3, using an array of percussion instruments integrated with electronics, keyboards, sampling and improvisation. He recently oversaw the release of Ionisation, an album honoring the late percussionist/mentor Robert Hohner.
Rachael Elliott – Bassoon
Solo album: Polka the Elk (Music Starts From Silence)
Bassoonist with Clogs, Dark in the Song, EK Duo, Heliand, Rushes Ensemble (Michael Gordon’s Rushes), and Tuple (Darker Things)
Bryce Dessner – Guitar
Latest release:
I Am Easy To Find (The National)
Composer, performer, curator and founder of MUSICNOW festival in Cincinnati, since 2006. His classical compositions have been performed by orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the world.