My portfolio includes scoring, arrangement and composition work for video games, feature film and television. As a musician and producer I have released over forty albums of jazz, folk, electronic, punk and modern classical music. I am currently accepting new commissions.
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Why Chris Schlarb?
The world is full of musicians, composers and producers. The hard part is matching the right person with the project they are best suited for.

Here is a quick example: if you want to approximate an orchestra of instruments with a single keyboard, I am probably not the right one for the job. My best work utilizes any number of unique, real world instruments including tabla, euphonium, mandolin, marimba and upright double bass. I thoroughly enjoy working with real instruments, in real spaces, with real musicians.

If your film, video game or album requires texture and atmospheric depth, unique or unusual live instrumentation, and thoughtful arrangement, I would love to hear from you. For the last decade I have explored the ambient, jazz, folk, electronic and modern classical genres as a member of both the American Composers Forum and ASCAP.

I specialize in taking small and medium sized budgets and turning them into expensive sounding recordings. I operate my own mobile recording studio and engineer most sessions, saving time and cost.

My work can be heard on this site and read about in the New York Times, All About Jazz, Time Out New York, Chicago Reader and Pitchfork.

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Asthmatic Kitty


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In Between

Seven days ago my wife and I woke up in Nick Hennies‘ house in Austin, caught some excellent breakfast tacos and jumped on a plane home. The night prior Nick and I got a bit of recording in for a video game score that I’m working on. We both remarked how much we would enjoy playing a game with music like ours. We’re that easy to please.

I had only been home for three days when Pitchfork published Joe Tangari’s tag team review of both Twilight & Ghost Stories and the new I Heart Lung album Between Them A Forest Grew, Trackless and Quiet.

A number of kind people dropped me a line to wish me congratulations. I also read more than a few vociferous comments about the “mediocre” review. Honestly, aside from the fact that the review is a month early and only featured one album cover I have nothing but positive things to say about it.

That Mr. Tangari reviewed the albums came as a pleasant surprise as I hold him in high esteem as one of the more contemplative, contextual writers working (Douglas Wolk, Phillip Buchan and Ned Raggett also come to mind- heck, so do Ian Patterson, Brandon Stousy and Jon Pareles). Although the scores (7.2 and 6.0 for Twilight and A Forest, respectively) might not incite the kind of rabid blog buzz that anything north of an 8.0 does, the review was sensitive, thoughtful and free from histrionics. I rather enjoyed it and am grateful for the time spent really listening to the albums. It’s too bad that a rating (numbers, stars, thumbs) can, on occasion, upstage such relevant writing.

Twilight & Ghost Stories, by the way, is now available from Asthmatic Kitty Records via pre-order for $10. I have a feeling that if you order the album now, you’ll receive prior to the December 4th release date. Between Them A Forest Grew, Trackless and Quiet is also available now, you get an immediately mp3 download while you wait for the CD in the mail.

I’ll be home for another few days before flying out to Indianapolis to work with Liz Janes on our forthcoming album. When we last got together in July we knocked out five solid demo recordings. Now that I’ve listened back to them I am both surprised and enthused. I’m looking forward to recording them with a full band early next year.

There’s much to be done between now and then.

Nov 03, 2007 | recordings