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.
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.

Record Labels


Asthmatic Kitty


Sounds Are Active
Archives

title

Song For Charles Rocket

“Song For Charles Rocket” is a piece of music I wrote for Destroyer of Brains, a free jazz ensemble from Los Angeles. For this demo recording I threw the Zoom H2 in front of my amp and looped the bass line while playing the lead melody over it. It should be fun to compare this messy, raw demo to the messy, raw studio version in a few weeks time.

A few days after recording the demo sketch, I rehearsed with Destroyer of Brains and taught them the piece. Here is a our first quartet attempt, warts and all.

On July 13th, 2009 we recorded at Compound Studio in Long Beach, CA. This video is from the song’s second take. It doesn’t really feature the full melody, which are present in the other demos. For that you’ll have to wait for the master take (Take 3) which will appear on the album.

Destroyer of Brains Sextet (from left to right)
Danny Miller- electric guitar
Danny T. Levin- euphonium, trumpet
David Moyer- tenor saxophone
Chris Nowak- electric bass
Chris Schlarb- electric guitar
Tabor Allen- drums

Written and Produced by Chris Schlarb
Engineered by Jeff Lewis