(gr)album APP: the book of sarth 

2.5 years in the making, THE BOOK OF SARTH is my first full-length solo release. Plus, (gr)album is a platform for releasing music and interactive art in the form of an app that I developed for iPad and iPhone. Unfathomable gratitude to my team: Andrew Beck was amazing. Elik Smith is a genius. Leah Coloff is a force of nature. Jacob McCoy is unstoppable. Together we made this.

lou reed's metal machine trio

"We have formed a recording unit called BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE. We intend to put out different types of my music - from industrial to meditative to songs and all subway stops in between. CREATE!"  - Lou Reed 

In 2008 Lou called me up and told me he was doing a free improvised noise gig at The REDCAT in LA with saxophonist and composer Ulrich Krieger. Ulrich had made a real impression on Lou by arranging Metal Machine Music for orchestral ensemble ... a rare and some might say unnatural feat that should be impossible. I had done a tour with Lou's rock band, processing and sampling the various instruments on stage, and we had talked about doing some duet shows performing the meditation music we'd been working on. That stuff was drones and melodies combined with pure noise, so this seemed only natural. Ulrich had billed us as "Unclassified" because obviously the group had no name yet.

The shows in LA were great, they sold out right away and we added a second set on one of the nights. We recorded the sets with a matched pair of Schoeps and a stereo Royer, and released them as they were -- pure ambient microphone tracks with no direct lines. That stuff was released as a double live CD, "Creation of the Universe."

This was the start of the group which was eventually renamed The Metal Machine Trio, and we went on to play in Europe, Brazil, and Australia.

We called the music "Deep Noise" because that's what it was. At times though, it felt almost like improvised classical music, or something which didn't have a name.

"lulu" with lou reed & metallica

I got a call from Lou one day to go over to his house and make some "interstitial" music for a theater production. Robert Wilson was staging "Lulu" with the Berliner Ensemble. This turned into co-writing 8 more songs with Lou Reed. (Hells yeah) After I got back from Berlin, we took the project to San Francisco and recorded it with Metallica. What a blast. They completely re-interpreted all the stuff, of course. They were awesome. Of course.

Yellow Pony

In 2009 I had the unique opportunity to do 2 short tours with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. I played continuum fingerboard and did live re-sampling of their voices. Also, I got to stand in the center of the stage, like a drummer. It was a wonderful experience. (This is also when I fell in love with Spain.)

lucibel crater

The rock/electronic group Sarth always dreamed he could have but never realized he would was Lucibel Crater.

Often described as "cubist," this trio was called "Bjork crossed with the White Stripes" and was fronted by singer/songwriter/cellist Leah Coloff, who has recorded for artists ranging from Dr. John to Ziggy Marley to Joel Thome to David Bowie, as well as receiving critical praise and radio play for her solo album "Dark Sweet Heart."

With Paul Chuffo on drums. Lucibel Crater used experimental methods to create music with familiar structure and grooves. A typical Lucibel Crater show might have begun with meticulous live looping of syncopated drum parts, built into a crescendo of noise, then dissolved and coalesced into a catchy melody sung over a Brooklyn-style groove.