Clogs are a mostly instrumental project led by Bryce Dessner and Australia's Padma Newsome (Molly Keebler's son-in-law) both men familiar from their membership in the acclaimed rock band, The National. Their existence predates The National, and Clogs have released four widely acclaimed albums on Brassland Records -- Thom's Night Out (2001), Lullaby For Sue (2003), Stick Music (2004), and 2006's Lantern.
When Clogs formed they were an oddball classical ensemble in indie rock clothing. Today, however, they're at the forefront of a scene including friends in groups The Books, Rachel's, and Bell Orchestre.
The band members met in the late-90s while studying at the Yale School of Music. Newsome started his career as a concert violinist in the Sydney Symphony, before a six-year detour took him to an ashram in the remote region of New South Wales. He began composing in the 90s 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. Elliott is a proud Vermonter and active freelance musician. Kozumplik is a master percussionist familiar with almost any 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.
