Rodolphe Burger

Rodolphe Burger is a french rock icon whose most notable achievements include a two-decade tenure as the singer/guitarist of Kat Onoma, plus acclaimed solo albums and a wide range of collaborations. Born on November 26, 1957, in Colmar, Haut-Rhin, France, he first garnered musical fame in the experimental rock band Kat Onoma. The Strasbourg-based band made its full-length debut in 1988 with the independently released album Cupid. The band’s popularity steadily increased over the years with successive albums including Stock Phrases (1990), Billy the Kid (1992), Far from the Pictures (1995), Happy Birthday Public (1997), Kat Onoma (2001), and Live à la Chapelle (2002). The band’s self-titled album from 2001 proved especially popular, reaching number 29 on the French albums chart.

Though Kat Onoma officially disbanded in 2004, Burger had already begun pursuing solo ambitions, releasing the albums Cheval-mouvement (1993), Meteor Show (1998) (this second album got the "Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros), then No Sport (2008), Valley Session (2009) and Good (this latter being particulary acclaimed). Informed by the international electronica movement of the era, Meteor Show and the other solo albums were a surprising departure from the rock experimentations of Kat Onoma. In addition to his solo album output, Burger released several full-length collaborative efforts, teaming up with Olivier Cadiot on On N’est Pas Des Indiens, C’est Dommage (2000), Hôtel Robinson (2002) and Psychopharmaka (2013), Françoise Hardy on Clair Obscur (2000) as well as albums by Alain Bashung (Fantaisie Militaire , 1998) and Jeanne Balibar (Paramour, 2003).

After the break-up of Kat Onoma in 2004, Burger pursued a range of activities, including additional collaborations such as Blood & Burger (2003) with James Blood Ulmer and Before Bach (2005) with Erik Marchand. His last solo album Good was widely acclaimed. He is also, since 2001, the artistic director of the well-known Festival C'est Dans la Vallée , and can be considered as one of the most successful "cross over" artist of the time in France.