In an era that worships at the altar of publicity, the ultra-reclusive musician Jandek is a heretic. Despite releasing a whopping 46 albums, he has kept his identity largely hidden, playing only 16 shows and granting just a single interview (to Spin magazine) over his 28-year career. His experimental indie-folk sound is equally off-kilter—cascades of random notes are plucked from an oddly tuned guitar and punctuated by an anguished moan. (Think a tone-deaf Robert Johnson noodling on a broken six-string.) Lyrics are alternately nonsensical (“I painted my teeth”) and depressive (“Cold dark and lonely, I look round for my shoes”). While speculation is rampant, Jandek’s real name remains a mystery, and his self-released CDs (sold via mail-order from an apparently self-run Houston-based record label called Corwood Industries) feature grainy snapshots of a man thought to be the musician. Even his onstage persona is cryptic: he played his first-ever show—unannounced—at the 2004 Instal Festival in Glasgow, where his skinny, black-clad frame and signature wail sparked an Internet frenzy. Still, the ambiguous shtick won him praise from the late Kurt Cobain, as well as indie icons Thurston Moore and Jeff Tweedy, and made him a cult hero among the college radio set. Could a spate of recent performances (this is his first in Canada) mean Jandek is warming to the spotlight? Not likely: leaving us wanting more has worked all too well.

Jandek plays the Centre of Gravity Sept. 17. $27. 1300 Gerrard St. E., 1-888-222-6608, www.tisue.net/jandek. Also available at Rotate This, Sam the Record Man and Circus Books & Music.