Kevin Bronson on February 12th, 2011

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[From our Dept. of Anti-Grammys:]

Back in the early days of this Internet portal, we introduced you to composer/producer Chris Schlarb, along with his project I Heart Lung. The Long Beach-based multi-instrumentalist has collaborated with myriad musicians on the avant-garde tip, but it’s his tour de force that got our attention last November. His album “Psychic Temple” – two years and 1,000 hours in the making and “the album I have been waiting 15 years to make,” he says – was released on Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label. It’s a mind-blowing 33 minutes of spacious, ambient hypno-jazz that unfolds like a time-lapse photograph. Schlarb’s remarkable group of collaborators on the project include bassist Mike Watt, pianist Mick Rossi (Philip Glass Ensemble), pedal steel player Dave Easley (the Brian Blade Fellowship) and vocalist DM Stith, among many others. Schlarb followed up that project with the release of the soundtrack to Nicklas Nygren’s “NightSky” video game – a physics-based puzzle game. It’s probably a bit over our heads, but he explains here.

||| Download: From “Psychic Temple,” “I Can Live Forever If I Slowly Die (excerpt)”

||| Live: Chris Schlarb’s Psychic Temple performs tonight at {open} bookstore in Long Beach and Sunday night at the Smell.

Photo by Ian Souter

||| More: After the jump, hallucinate to “Psychic Temple” and the “NightSky” soundtrack: