Search - Chris Schlarb :: Twilight & Ghost Stories

Elegant, messy complexity

N. Erber | 01/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Seems easy, right? You take a bunch of tracks (Ie. field recordings, snippets of melodies, original instrumentation), combine them with a couple contributions from some of your high-profile indie rock friends, mash them up in Garageband. Make sure that certain sounds are dominant and to the untrained listener everything in the background just jumbles together. Don't worry about the chaos, because most people can't hear it.



For most other people, this stuff would be easy. But Chris Schlarb seems to worry about chaos. Every piece of this densely packed, beautiful album fits together just so. All the background noise, all the overheard conversations, all of the wet, wet rain hitting the pavement. It all works together in some unconveyable spiritual sense. Personally, I hear something new every time I drop it in the CD player. Examples: fat, slide guitar stopping and starting over what sounds like cars splashing onto sidewalks; Parker Paul's voice over droning guitars (see also: Create (!)-A Prospect of Freedom) over a deep and deeply moving sax in a grain silo; S. Steven's "elegiac" piano over cymbal swells and the patter of a Long Beach rain and what I can only describe as something that sounds like it's beating and blowing (Havalina's Orlando Greenhill?).



None of the ambient or experimental aspects of the music compromise the album's listenability. In fact, this might be the album that finally gets you, good listener, into more free-jazzy, deconstructionist music. Just wikipedia a couple of the contributors.



It's deeply personal, communal, innovative, and as far as this small voice is concerned, one of the best albums of 2007."

Experimental, yet very accessible

Todd Ebert | Long Beach California | 12/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First off, if half-stars were possible, I would have given this recording 3.5 stars. I rounded up because this is Chris Schlarb's first release, and a very ambitious and creative one at that.



"Twighlight and Ghost Stories" by Chris Schlarb gives a partial answer to one question that I often contemplate: how would serious composers from decades and centuries ago compose their music given access to today's plethora of recording, synthesizer, and computer technology? Back then, for a piece of music to be heard, it would have to be played by a group of musicians playing together at the same place and time. Moreover, the set of sounds that were possible were limited by those that the acoustic instruments could generate. On the other hand, it appears that Schlarb individually recorded and played with many of the over 30 musicians who appear on this recording in non-chronological order (with respect to the order of when each note is heard). A less ambitious project would have found the composer staying home and generating the sounds adhoc with his own synthesizer and recording equipment, but not here. Like the traditions of the past, much of the sounds heard on this recording were played with acoustic instruments by professional musicians. Additional sampled electronic sounds and sampled environmental sounds (e.g. rain falling and waves crashing) permeate the listening space throughout.



The composition itself consists of 10 musical vignettes, but I would hesitate to say that each is meant to tell its own "Ghost Story", and if they were, I am not at all sure the stories tie together in any given way. But that is not necessary for enjoying the music.



The composition starts off well with the first track which sounds very ethereal with the meshing of piano, bells, chimes, voices, and other percussion and swirling rain.



I thought the rain and crashing wave sounds were effective in some places, but detracted in others. For example, on Track 3 I was very taken by the other-worldliness playing of both Sufjan Stevens (piano) and Adam Garcia (drums). At that point I would have preferred to have heard less of some of the background environmental sound effects. And I suppose this criticism applies to other parts of the recording. Silence can also seem a wonderful sound! The sound of the rain never ceases throughout the recording. May be it was meant to help tie the vignettes together.



I enjoyed the percussion on Track 4. Very reminiscent of some of the tracks on Sun Ra's "Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy"!



I suppose Track 5 brings up one other criticism I have of the recording, and that is that at times I would have liked to have heard more of these wonderful musicians. Brother Mitya's singing and guitar on Track 5 ended so abruptly. I really wanted to hear more of him. There were other instances where I wanted to hear a musician hit full stride, but his or her playing was cut short.



Tracks 6 and 7 were two of my favorites because they seem very "down to earth" and feature Schlarb playing some excellent (slide ?) guitar on Track 6 and electric guitar (accompanied by drummer Vince Reyes) on Track 7. Track 7 reminded me very much of part II of Track 1 from the BH Surfers "Hairway to Steven" (The BH Surfers were brilliant at using synthetic and environmental sounds to enhance their music). I also love Bill Brown's brief vibraphone playing on this track.



There is even a spoken-word track featuring Parker Paul and one of his "seedy Ohio stories" to quote the composer.



Finally, I just want to say that although this music may seem quite experimental, I actually found it very accessible and interesting to listen to. The seemingly disparate sounds from different musicians, electronic gizmos, and places around the country somehow fit together to make this recording a success. The years spent on putting this recording together were well invested."