Clogs are a mostly instrumental project led by

Bryce Dessner Bryce David Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, as well as a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother Aaron is also a member of the group. Together they write the music, in coll ...

and Padma Newsome. Clogs have released five albums on

Brassland Records Brassland is an independent record label founded in 2001 by Alec Hanley Bemis, Aaron Dessner, and Bryce Dessner. History In Brassland's early years, Bemis worked as a freelance journalist for ''LA Weekly'' and ''The New York Times''. The Dessners ...

-- ''Thom's Night Out'' (2001), ''Lullaby for Sue'' (2003), ''Stick Music'' (2004), '' Lantern'' (2006) and ''The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton'' (2010).

History

The band members met in the late 1990s while studying at the Yale School of Music. Newsome, born in 1961 in Alice Springs, Australia, started his career as a concert violinist in the

Sydney Symphony The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra that was initially formed in 1908. Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been its home concert hall. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and fir ...

, before a six-year detour took him to an ashram in the remote region of New South Wales. He began composing in the 1990s at the University of Adelaide, when he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship that brought him to America. Dessner is an established soloist, and veteran of groups including Bang on a Can All-Stars, which has given him in contact with major figures like Philip Glass and

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for ...

. Elliott is a proud Vermonter and active freelance musician. Kozumplik is a master percussionist familiar with almost any style.

Style

Clogs' "classical" music is the result of a peculiar writing process more akin to a rock band or a jazz quartet. The members come to rehearsals with basic ideas that the group riffs on and develops in jam sessions and live performance. Newsome later arranges these ideas into elegant and complex musical narratives that meld and extend the ideas of minimalist, modernist, and romantic composers, adding sounds and melodies drawn from the folk music of India, the Jewish Diaspora, and everywhere else.

Members

*Padma Newsome – viola, violin, melodica, voice, piano *

– guitar, ukulele *Rachael Elliott – bassoon, melodica *Thomas Kozumplik – percussion

Discography

Albums

* ''Thom's Night Out'' (2001) * ''Lullaby for Sue'' (2003) * ''Stick Music'' (2004) * '' Lantern'' (2006) * '' The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton'' (2010)

EPs

* ''Veil Waltz'' (2010) * ''Last Song'' (2010) * ''The Sundown Song'' (2013)

References

External links

Official websiteClogs
on MySpace
Clogs on Brassland RecordsClogs live on WOXY.com, 28 April 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clogs Australian post-rock groups