Why Chris Schlarb?
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
discography
Schlarb Family White Christmas Album 2009
The response to last year’s Schlarb Family Christmas Album was so enthusiastic that we couldn’t wait to get another one out in time for this Christmas. Things got started in October when kids really dug into a few Paul McCartney tunes on The White Album. Soon, Elisha knew the melody and lyrics to “Rocky Raccoon” [...]
The Widow Babies- Jetpacks
In January of 2009, The Widow Babies and I began recording Jetpacks. Our first album together, The Mike Watt EP, was recorded in a single day. Jetpacks, however, consisted of three days in the studio with additional time for tracking, mixing and overdubs. To my ears, Jetpacks sounds different than anything coming out of Los [...]
Twilight & Ghost Stories (Album)
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AMAZON // ASTHMATIC KITTY // EMUSIC // ITUNES
ABOUT
A work of personal identity and deep catharsis, Twilight & Ghost Stories is a dense 40-minute modern composition featuring a disparate cross-section of musicians from the avant-garde, independent folk, jazz and electronic communities. A creative and accomplished jazz guitarist, Chris Schlarb cut [...]
Music Timeline (2008)
I had so many different projects on-going and intersecting this year I thought it might be fun to work up a little timeline. I ended up purchasing a beautiful piece of software by BeeDocs earlier this year called Timeline 3D and it imported all of my events from iCal. Then I started taking stuff out [...]
Schlarb Family Christmas Album 2008
We didn’t have much money this year so we started a tradition instead. Every year, as a family, we will try to make a short Christmas album with everyone contributing. This year, we got a little Fragile with it. We have tunes as a family, and tunes in smaller groups.
The high-concept, two part “Christmastime [...]
The Widow Babies- The Mike Watt E.P. (2008)
The first song I ever heard The Widow Babies play was “Mike Watt Created The Universe With A Bass Solo”. I was recording the group at the request of concert promoter and musical provocateur, Sean Carnage for a music film called Friends In Other Dimensions. Sean knew my musical leanings and said I might be [...]
ellul- s/t (2007)
When the dust settled we had traveled up and down the California coast four times: twice by car, twice by plane. We recorded in a church on top of a hill in San Francisco and in the darkness of an industrial warehouse in Carson. We collaborated with artists from Argentina, Italy and Spain. We [...]
Jazz- A Compilation (2001)
By 2001, I was starting to take Sounds Are Active seriously. We had changed the name (from the awful Mantis Music), started talking with Glen about putting out Soul-Junk and received the first of many logos for the label. I think it may have been Pete Deeble’s idea: assemble some of the most interesting, [...]
Create (!)- Moth Nor Rust (2000)
Recorded over the course of a few months, Moth Nor Rust was the first release by Sounds Are Active (at that time, 1999, called Mantis Music). We pressed and sold almost 200 copies of this album on CD-R’s. I had to burn each individual track because I didn’t have a CD burner on my computer [...]