Chris Schlarb - Psychic Temple

Chris Schlarb
Psychic Temple
(2010, Asthmatic Kitty)
RIYL = I Heart Lung, Mary Halvorson, Dirty Three

Composer/guitarist/collagist Chris Schlarb isn’t one to rush things. It has been a good three years since his gorgeous debut, Twilight & Ghost Stories (one of my favourite records of the past decade), blew my mind. What a gift that album was. The stretch has allowed me ample time to get completely psyched for his follow up, which has now finally been released, and I must say, is stunning. As an artist, I respect Schlarb greatly for his immense creativity and communal approach to making art. Similar to his debut, Psychic Temple is filled to the brim with contributors. Some notable members of this swelling 29 person crew includes the gorgeous vocal talent of Julianna Barwick, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter DM Stith and Weird Weeds percussionist Nick Hennies. Of course, amidst 29 talented musicians, the list could go on and on, but suffice it to say, Schlarb’s been working with the best of the best. And it shows. Psychic Temple is a statement of pure elation. And, under the patient, meticulous guidance of Schlarb, is a singular world where brassy horn conversations, ghostly vocal choirs, fluttering drums and Schlarb’s signature guitar work, all melt into one another in order to produce a body of sound that envelopes the listener. Similar to Twilight & Ghost Stories, Psychic Temple is a collage of sounds, however, this time around, everything seems to fit together much more smoothly, the coarse edges having been sanded away, setting loose a musical flow that enters the ear canals without resistance. The album is hypnotic. Meditative. It’s introspective, allowing, through the psychic gestures of the instruments, the resignation of the body and the heightened activity of the mind. The intent isn’t to lull one into slumber (though I can’t say it couldn’t achieve this with ease), but to provide a space for active reflection on the relevance and influence of beauty. In four fluid movements, Psychic Temple makes a lasting imprint with ease.

-Thistle

Chris Schlarb - "I Can Live Forever If I Slowly Die (excerpt)"

P to the S - due to some generous Kickstarter contributions, Psychic Temple will be pressed to wax as well. Huzzah!

86.

Chris Schlarb
Twilight & Ghost Stories
(Asthmatic Kitty, 2007)

Chris Schlarb’s Twilight & Ghost Stories is possibly the most painterly album on this list. The music feels like it was created by a variety of brushing, smattering, splotching, dragging, clouding and blending. Schlarb has created an accumulated hodge podge of collected sounds stretched, sifted and gorgeously assembled into this singular, jazz-informed collage. Beautiful and heartbreakingly quaint.

-Thistle

Chris Schlarb - Twighlight & Ghost Stories

Chris Schlarb
Twilight & Ghost Stories
(12.2007, Asthmatic Kitty)
Verdict = A Mess of Patchwork Beauty

With Twilight & Ghost Stories, seasoned experimental guitarist Chris Schlarb has sewn together a patchwork quilt that is as comfortable, sentimental and ragged as the one you’ve been draggin’ around since child birth. Employing field recordings, and friend’s recordings along with his own instrumentation and final editing, Twilight & Ghost Stories floats by like a like bright midnight clouds that alternately obscure and reveal the stars that shine behind them. Some of the notable contributors here are Sufjan Stevens, Ray Raposa of Castanets, Half-Handed Cloud and Dirty Projector, Dave Longstreth. There are plenty more contributors as well in a project that took five years to complete, but you would never know it if it wasn’t for their inclusion in the liner notes. In fact the only time I was able to identify someone was when Longstreth’s unmistakable elastic voice surfaces in “Section IV.” Released on Sufjan’s Asthmatic Kitty label, Schlarb is the first among an assumed series of artists to follow that are being labeled “unusual animals.” Schlarb’s work is definitely a departure from the largely pop oriented roster on AK but is not out of place in his light, life affirming delivery. There is a certain air of comfort in the collage that I haven’t heard since The Books debut, Thought For Food. In all its abstraction, Twilight & Ghost Stories maintains a resilient degree of heart and an inviting, humanizing touch that allows the album to employ the sum of its many parts equitably and to great satisfaction. I think the real achievement of the album is its replay value. You can’t just listen to the record once and go. “huh, that was nice,” and move onto the next album in your CD player. Once the album draws you in it becomes necessary to listen to it again and again, not only to dig deeper into the wealthy depth of motifs but also to simply enjoy the record once more. For all of Schlarb’s output elsewhere, Twilight & Ghost Stories is his most assured release to date and a lost gem released late in 2007.

-Mr. Thistle

Chris Schlarb - "Section I"