Manuel Troller (*1986 in Lucerne) is a guitarist, composer, and improvising musician from Switzerland. His work deals with the perception of time, unusual musical forms in all genres and detailed processes of reduction.

His work has been released by three:four records and meakusma, Cuneiform Records, Clean Feed Records, Astral Spirits and Everest Records, among others.

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At the early age of 19 and along bassplayer Andi Schnellmann and drummer David Meier, he founded the experimental trio Schnellertollermeier in 2006, with which he released 5 widely acclaimed records (Cuneiform Records and Veto-Records) and keeps touring the world.

At the age of 22, he joined swiss pop singer Sophie Hunger and her band, accompanying her at Glastonbury, Montreux Jazz Festival and legendary Olympia in Paris and contributed a majority of the guitar parts to her critically acclaimed 1983 record. Joining the band also marks the beginning of the long-running collaboration with outstanding Swiss drummer Julian Sartorius, with which he has worked in countless projects ever-since. One of them is the minimalistic and longform-improv-trio Baumschule with Raphael Loher on piano (three:four records).

While still studying at the music university, he started to collaborate with former Anthony Braxton quartet drummer Gerry Hemingway in various formats - also contributung to his recent ‚Afterlife‘-record from 2023, did music for the Schauspielhaus Zurich with Swiss songwriter Stephan Eicher in 2011 but constantly kept moving towards more experimental music and his own projects. He became a frequent collaborator in the Swiss improv scene, working with Hans Koch, Christian Weber, Pez Zumthor, Fred Lonberg-Holm to only name a few, but also been invited as a guest for new music ensembles.

His work is - from the very beginning - clearly marked by his distinctive guitar playing and rhythmic density, bridging boundaries across all sorts of genres, inheriting an unmistakable patience in the development of the music. The focus of investigating on one single idea and it‘s countless possibilities, as well as unusual musical forms and long pieces that unfold their subtle beauty very slowly are two major components, that lie at the heart/core of Troller‘s work.

While Troller is probably best known for his rhythmic and dense pieces, there are these fragile and tender moments throughout almost all his work, coming from his use subtle use of harmony and melody, revealing an often ambiguous emotional depth rarely heard in experimental music.

As a solo artist, with Schnellertollermeier, Julian Sartorius and countless other collaborations, he has performed at places and festivals such as Le Guess Who?, Bad Bonn Kilbi, Fimav Victoriaville, SuperDeluxe Tokyo, Oct-Loft Festival B10 Shenzhen, Meakusma Festival, Haldern Pop Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Bimhuis Amsterdam, Jazzfestival Willisau, Jazzfestival Saalfelden, Moers Festival, Café OTO and many more.

In 2019, Troller was Artist-In-Residence and guest curator of the Taktlos festival in Zurich and has been awarded with several prizes, such as the Swiss Music Prize in 2021.

After releasing his widely acclaimed solo debut Vanishing Points in 2018 on three:four records, he just returned with his new album Halcyon Future in 2024 on meakusma and three:four records.