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
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Electric Guitar Pedal Board
I try to keep it simple. In fact, for most of the last 10 years, my use of effects pedals has been downright spartan. At this point, I think I have finally put the right combination of sounds together. The only difference with this photo and my actual performance set up is that the BOSS [...]
IN TRANSIT presents: 16mm
On May 19th, 2008, I Heart Lung went into Matt Wignall’s Tackyland Studio in Long Beach and recorded music to accompany a series of colorful short films by Canadian visual artist Jonathan Dueck. Jonathan has designed album covers for Soul-Junk, Rafter Roberts, Liz Janes and many others, he is also responsible for bringing West African [...]
Indie Video Game Music Roundtable
Photo by Vincent Diamante
In late March of 2009, I attended the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, California. NightSky was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Game Festival and the game’s creator, Nifflas and I would be helping to demo the game on the show floor.
The conference was bustling with energy, [...]
Twilight & Ghost Stories NYC
All photography by Scott Friedlander ©2009
Shannon Fields and I started talked in the early winter of 2008. He was booking four months in advance for the calendar at John Zorn’s venue, The Stone. Each month one person picks all of the music that will be played there, two seatings per night, one at 8pm and [...]
Some Assembly Required
This past Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours picking up last minute accessories for the upcoming performance of Twilight & Ghost Stories: plug adapters, electric cables, miniature light switches and bulbs. My luggage hardly consists of a “musical instrument” in the traditional sense; I won’t even be traveling with an acoustic guitar. When I [...]
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 [...]
Two Twilights
Photo by Nariposa
In two weeks time I have travelled over 3,500 miles to perform Twilight & Ghost Stories. The first performance, on July 19th, at San Francisco’s Hemlock Tavern was a cramped, frenzied, artistic success that included a wonderful ensemble of musicians including an interesting substitution: cellist Alex Cort and his wife gave birth to [...]
The Rain Came
Photo by frinkianz
A few weeks back I was asked a question: would I like to go to Athens, Georgia in December and play some music. Typically, I responded with two questions of my own. One about transportation and one about a performance guarantee. Both of those questions were quickly answered in the affirmative and arrangements [...]
Anthony Shadduck Quartet @ Finger Prints (03.19.07)
In the last ten years I’ve either played at or attended thousands of shows. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy about a performance in which I didn’t actually perform. In that same decade I’ve been shopping at Fingerprints in Long Beach: I bought my first Squarepusher and Steve Reich records there and with [...]