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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The Year In Listening (2008)

I am used to feeling a certain gaping remove from most things: society at large, the greater music listening public, their trends and so on. This year was no different in that respect; I saw names rise up out of the fertile ground tilled by publicists and float above the dirt just long enough for someone to make their money back. I heard ideas touted and technologies romanced until they formed a glut of binary nonsense before my very eyes.

I tried my best to make a living as a musician this year and the remove required in that effort was almost Herculean. Twilight & Ghost Stories II anyone? It’s a strange life with strange requirements. Maybe my training wheels will come off in the next twelve months.

Nevertheless, this year was rich with musical experiences: I composed my first video game score, performed Twilight & Ghost Stories in both San Francisco and Austin, wrote my first extended piece for violin and cello, released both Interoceans, Interoceans Remixed and the Schlarb Family Christmas Album. I also produced a few great albums including the debut records for The Widow Babies, Steve Gerstein and The Commotions. I even got to tour the West Coast alongside ellul with I Heart Lung and play a gig with Kira Roessler and Mike Watt. I also saw Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell play music together less than 20 feet away from my physical body.

I definitely spent more time this year listening to and working on my own music and projects than any other I can think of. I remember how, just ten years ago, my ears were so open and ready to absorb the millions of ideas floating around out there. Now I use the music of other artists to help escape my own ideas and reflect on the creative process.

As far as those rising names and their associated publicity machines; I’ve never been good at riding bandwagons. Sometimes I’m too stubborn for my own good.

With all that bluster for context, here were the 2008 albums that moved me:

5. Juana Molina- Un Dia
4. NOMO- Ghost Rock
3. Strategy- Music For Lamping
2. Cynic- Traced In Air
1. Squarepusher- Just A Souvenier

Dec 23, 2008 | listening, thoughts