An astounding work of passion and patience over one thousand hours in the making, Long Beach musician/composer Chris Schlarb bestows his latest musical vision, Psychic Temple, onto the world. Known for his work as half of the hypnotic, jazz/drone duo, I Heart Lung, Schlarb’s latest work expands wildly in new directions, incorporating wordless vocal choirs, string quartets and horn sections into his 29-member ensemble.

Inspired by the rhythmic pulse of microhouse, and the melodic vocabulary of jazz and folk music, Psychic Temple is a deeply considered meditation on beauty. Recording began in January of 2009 and over the next nineteen months Schlarb collaborated with twenty-eight musicians (including four bassists, three drummers and six vocalists) to build Psychic Temple.

It would not be an exaggeration to boast that Psychic Temple contains performances from some of today’s finest musicians including Mick Rossi of the Philip Glass Ensemble, legendary Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, vocalists Julianna Barwick, DM Stith, Joel St. Julien (of ELLUL), Aaron Roche, trumpeter Kris Tiner, Brian Blade Fellowship pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley, Weird Weeds percussionist Nick Hennies, guitarist Danny Miller and drummer Tabor Allen (of Rare Grooves and The Widow Babies), bassists Steuart Liebig, C.J. Boyd and Anthony Shadduck, and Danny T. Levin and David Moyer on horns.

Credits
Composed, Arranged, Engineered, and Produced by Chris Schlarb

Recorded and Mixed at Sounds Are Active, Long Beach, CA.
from January 4th, 2009 – August 18th, 2010

Mastered by Roger Seibel at SAE Mastering
Layout and Design by Elis Im
Photography by Ian Souter
Additional Artwork by Danny Miller
Mix Consulting by Ronan Chris Murphy
Master Consulting by TW Walsh

Track Listing
01. I Can Live Forever If I Slowly Die 10:10
02. Dream State > Police State 9:15
03. Daughters of Ursa Major 5:20
04. White Dove In The Psychic Temple 8:25

Visions & Revisions is more an organism than an album. As time passes the music collected herein will be changed and augmented, remixed and revised. All of C.J. Boyd’s solo electric bass catalog has been tossed into the hands of others for examination. As such, we have not edited or contextualized or mastered these contributions. They are presented as received in varied volumes and bit rates. Highlights include the synthy boom/bap of Hefty Records’ Eliot Lipp (”The Day After”), Cignol’s melodic chop shop (”RPSW”) and the bit crushed Autechre-like textures of Datrot’s “Salami.”

Ver 1.0 Artwork stolen from Banksy

Track Listing
01. Das Wandernde Nashorn by JamesDoug [mp3]
02. Salami by Datrot [mp3]
03. Danger by Wick-it the Instigator [mp3]
04. For Everyone I Know by JimEd [mp3]
05. The Day After by Eliot Lipp [mp3]
06. psr-510 by Blackat Sylvesta [mp3]
07. RPSW by Cignol [mp3]
08. Go Remix Some Love by Deejay Tanner [mp3]
09. 5th Story by The Together at Last [mp3]
10. Shieldless Soldier by Sketches for Albinos [mp3]
11. Here’s to the End of Time Remixxx by CJ Boyd [mp3]

Press
None at this time.

C.J. Boyd fashions beautiful, rolling compositions from his looping electric bass and multi-tracked harmonica which producer Perri turns into a hundred year old pump organ.

Both ambient and inherently rhythmic The Greatest Weight finds optimism in simplicity. A welcome rest for ears weighed down by excess.

Layout and Design by Aaron Tanner
Landscape photography by Scott Liddell

Track Listing
01. Bonfire
02. Go Love Some More
03. Thoughts of Youth [mp3]
04. Here’s To Hybris
05. Dynamos/Scrumpin’

Press
“The Greatest Weight is a solo acoustic bass album for the rest of us. Okay, so Boyd’s cheating a bit, he layers multiple tracks of his playing to create lush, liquid music that sounds more like the quietest moments in Talk Talk’s last two albums than the part of an Anthony Braxton concert where Mark Dresser goes it alone. But this is heavenly stuff, an organic palate cleanser for Kranky-ophiles and adorers of the deep, dubbed-out techno of Pole and Porter Ricks.”- Tiny Mix Tapes

“Not many albums have instrumentation solely provided by electric bass and harmonica, so credit goes to C.J. Boyd for even attempting the idea to start with. But beyond that there has to be good music, and happily Boyd delivers on The Greatest Weight, an album which recalls the mysterious chill of performers like Lull or the underrated Crib, as well as more conventional but no less gripping bands like Codeine or early Low in their emphasis on the low rather than the high end.”- All Music Guide

“In the great tradition of Terry Riley’s 40-year-old debut, “Reed Streams,” producer Sandro Perri (of Polmo Polpo) twists, turns, and stretches Boyd’s harmonica to the point where it takes on a new life, sounding much like Riley’s pump organ… It’s both rhythmically busy, yet harmonicly simple and never boring. I have a theory that the lower bass tones and harmonics, coupled with the distorted harmonica may actually be more soothing than listening to screaming guitar solos from the other end of the sonic spectrum.”- Foxy Digitalis

“Simplicity can be a really incredible thing…particularly when it is utilized to make something credible and constructive. The Greatest Weight is a different sort of album, created from a different sort of perspective… both thought provoking and very current.”- Baby Sue