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.

Record Labels


Asthmatic Kitty


Sounds Are Active
Archives

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Bio

Chris Schlarb is a musician, composer and producer based in Long Beach, California. His debut solo album, Twilight & Ghost Stories, was critically hailed as both, “40 minutes of avant-garde bliss” by the New York Observer and as “a monumental achievement” by FFWD Weekly. His follow up album, Interoceans, with experimental jazz duo I Heart Lung, was chosen by National Public Radio as one of the Top 5 Jazz albums of the year for 2008.

A unique composer utilizing a wide range of instruments, collaborators and techniques, Chris Schlarb has recorded, produced, and scored music for film, television and video games. In 2009, Chris and Swedish game designer Nifflas collaborated on the video game NightSky for the Nintendo Wii. Chris composed over 45 minutes of original music for NightSky which was nominated for the Independent Game Festival’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize. BoingBoing described the soundtrack to NightSky as “What Game Music Can Be”.

As a musician and producer Chris has collaborated with Mike Watt, Sufjan Stevens, Nels Cline (of Wilco), Mick Rossi (of The Philip Glass Ensemble), Dave Longstreth (of The Dirty Projectors), Blue Note recording artist Dave Easley (of The Brian Blade Fellowship), Ikey Owens (of The Mars Volta), Daedelus, Chad Taylor (of Iron & Wine), Busdriver, Diane Cluck, Steuart Liebig, and DM Stith.

In 2001 Chris started the Sounds Are Active label specializing in jazz, experimental, electronic and other progressive musics. In 2006 he produced and released the Sean Carnage film 40 BANDS/80 MINUTES! He is a member of both ASCAP and the American Composer’s Forum and releases music on the Asthmatic Kitty record label. Chris has also appeared as a guest speaker and lecturer at California State University Long Beach, NX35 Festival in Denton, Texas and at West L.A. College. His music writing has been published by Venus, Sound Collector Audio Review, Bandoppler, L.A. Record, Dailysonic, Prism Index, The Topeka-Capital Journal, and LAist.com. He also keeps a fairly current booklist maintained on this site.

SELECTED WORKS

PHOTOS

01 Photo by Scott Friedlander
02 Photo by Scott Friedlander
03 Photo by Adriana Schlarb
04 Photo by Adriana Schlarb
05 Photo by Steve Elkins (with I Heart Lung)

ADDRESS

3553 Atlantic Ave. Ste. 1430
Long Beach, CA. 90807