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
thoughts
Twilight Time
Just received the beautiful master from Mr. Rafter Roberts. Co-ordinating Grady McFerrin’s beautiful artwork with the talented hands of Alaska!. Ghost Stories are almost ready to be told.
Here’s to Focusing and Working
With the welcome demise of the Sounds Are Active myspace page and the more painful shuttering of the BBS I have started to create a framework for two important things: family life and making music. I still enjoy talking with anyone about music and I am always hopeful that the music I love or have [...]
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 [...]