Guitarist and composer Roger Kleier spent his formative years in the Los Angeles region. Radio broadcasts of Jimi Hendrix and Captain Beefheart sparked his decision to begin playing music at thirteen. He pursued composition studies at North Texas State University and the University of Southern California, where improvisation gradually captured his attention. In 1981 he helped establish the Los Angeles Improvisers Collective. Throughout the 1980s he also recorded alongside Stan Ridgeway. After moving to New York City, Kleier worked during the following decade with an array of downtown figures that included Samm Bennett and Marc Ribot. Support arrived through numerous grants from the NEA, Meet the Composer, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He appeared at new-music venues and festivals across North America and Europe, frequently alongside his longtime collaborator, pianist and new-music composer Annie Gosfield. Kleier contributed to her 1998 Tzadik album Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires, while Rift Records issued his own project Klangenbang. Continued associations with New York avant-garde mainstays such as Elliott Sharp sustained his presence within the virtuoso underground and paved the way for the 2001 Starkland release of his brooding and eclectic Deep Night, Deep Autumn.
