Founder of Third Wall Studio, and creator of the Burlap app. Brooklyn. Data engineer, artist, and musician working in AI. https://www.sarth.net/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/ https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/solsbury-hill/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Solsbury Hill, Lou Reed's recording of the Peter Gabriel song for And I'll Scratch Yours, Real World Records, 2013, produced by Sarth Calhoun, who plays electronics on it.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/singles/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Sarth Calhoun's singles as Sarth, 2020 to 2025, on Noise | Groove: Squishy | Bass, Peanut Style, Everything Everything, For Lovers, My Empty Father, Failure is OK, Shimmering Angels, Ego Streaked, Softly Questioning (Reprise), and Sometimes You Need Sun as Catfish Calhoun and Friends.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/peggy-sue/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Peggy Sue, Lou Reed's recording of the Buddy Holly song for Rave On Buddy Holly, 2011, with Sarth Calhoun on bass, a Moog Little Phatty.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/introspections/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Introspections, Sarth Calhoun's improvised drone pieces from 2015 on Continuum and Kyma: For Lovers with Jacob McCoy, Sunset Meditation, and a Warper Party clip. Built on the meditation music made with Lou Reed and Metal Machine Trio.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/beautiful-tornado/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Beautiful Tornado, the podcast by Sarth Calhoun and Dom Bouffard: six conversations with musicians and artists, 2020 to 2021, with Doron Lev, Glen Brady, Richard Naviasky, Bryan Senti and Michael Patrick Flanagan Smith.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspirators/rob-wasserman/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Sarth Calhoun on meeting bassist Rob Wasserman, touring together with Lou Reed, and the first Kyma session that became the basis of Junior Dad.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/third-wall-studio/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Third Wall Studio, the animation studio Sarth Calhoun founded in May 2025. Animation with filmmakers and artists, mixing live action, animation and generative AI, made in Burlap.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/ingather/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Ingather, the control system Sarth Calhoun built for a cannabis cultivation facility between August 2021 and March 2022. Rooms and zones, fertigation and lighting routines, dosing recipes and machines. Playable demo online.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/burlap/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Burlap, the native Mac app Sarth Calhoun made at Third Wall Studio: an infinite canvas for visual creation and context management, connected to models from OpenAI, Google, Runway and ByteDance.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/about/ 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z

Sarth Calhoun: founder of Third Wall Studio, creator of the Burlap app. Brooklyn. Data engineer, artist and musician working in AI. Key facts and frequently asked questions.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/work/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Sarth Calhoun’s CV, newest first: Third Wall Studio, the Burlap app, writing, data engineering at Reaktor and Paramount, and the music.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/you-might-not-need-pandas/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Why most day to day Pandas work is better done in SQL, with a side by side average-sales-by-category example, and where Pandas still earns its place.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/window-functions/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

The mental model for SQL window functions: compare them to aggregates, PARTITION BY vs GROUP BY, ROW_NUMBER vs RANK, and why the window grows.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/why-python-is-the-default-for-data-work/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Python is the default for data work because it is what people know, plus an ecosystem (Pandas, PyTorch) written in C, C++ and CUDA. What that does and does not tell you about building pipelines.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/sql-as-the-data-language/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Views, CTEs, joins, and why a handy way to think about SQL is that everything is a table (which is also not true).

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/node-vs-rails/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

The case that an agnostic server like Node beats batteries included, and why I am not sure I believe it.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/modern-postgres/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

JSONB, horizontal scaling, and the rise and fall of MongoDB: why the argument for NoSQL got harder to make until people stopped making it.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/external-tables/why-append-only/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Why you would keep every file forever instead of upserting: an append-only store makes loads idempotent, order-independent, and parallelizable.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/external-tables/living-with-the-code/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Reading dense, strongly typed functional TypeScript: Prettier verticality, generics, and going one concept at a time.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/external-tables/defending-the-boundary/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Runtime type checking with io-ts codecs in Node streams: errors as values, async pipelines, and why validating at the boundary saves time, money, and heartache.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/external-tables/current-truth-with-window-functions/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Unique keys, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY ... ORDER BY file_date DESC) = 1, and views: surfacing the current version of every record from an append-only store.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/external-tables/building-on-external-tables/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Laying out object storage so file paths are partitions, and defining external tables over directories of CSVs, with Snowflake as the worked example.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/external-tables/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

A five-part tutorial on building an append-only data pipeline on external tables: why append-only, external tables, window functions for the current truth, runtime type checking at the boundary, and living with the code.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/duckdb-where-have-you-been-all-my-life/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Using Claude and DuckDB to query Burlap's JSON records of genAI calls, and running the whole append-only pipeline pattern on a laptop.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/yellow-pony/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Yellow Pony, billed The Yellow Pony and Other Songs and Stories: two short 2009 European tours with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, with Sarth Calhoun on Continuum Fingerboard and live resampling of their voices.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/vivid-live/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Vivid LIVE 2010 at the Sydney Opera House, curated by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. Sarth Calhoun played Metal Machine Trio, a roughly fifty-person noise band at the opening, and about a dozen unplanned jams across the two weeks.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/reflections-vol-1/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Sarth Calhoun’s first release of improvised duets, subtitled A Noise Akin to a Flight of Deranged Swallows in Combat, featuring Exaltron, and the track whose melody came from Joe Kelly’s film Poughkeepsie.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/lou-reed-2011-european-tour/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Lou Reed’s 2011 European summer tour with an eight-piece band including Sarth Calhoun on Continuum and Kyma, Rob Wasserman, Kevin Hearn, Aram Bajakian, Tony Diodore and Tony Smith. Hop Farm and Carhaix.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/i-just-believe-in-christmas/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

The origin of Sarth Calhoun’s Christmas song, sung by Michael Patrick Flanagan Smith, with words finished by Jesse Schoen, Virginia Piazza and Doron Lev. Lyrics and links.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/creation-of-the-universe-ambisonic/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

The Metal Machine Trio Blender Theater recording spatialized as a 10.1 ambisonic installation at CSULB and Cranbrook, using Arup SoundLab technology. Sarth Calhoun on what he thought of it at the time.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/awakening-to-blacklist/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

How Sarth Calhoun built the track Awakening (To Blacklist) from 60-cycle hum in Ableton Live, using a frequency shifter preset called Space Birds, and matched it to a scene in The Book of Sarth.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/citations/ 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Every outbound citation on sarth.net, grouped by page, with a machine-readable JSON version for agents.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/visual-reference-prompting/ 2026-07-31T00:00:00Z 2026-07-31T00:00:00Z

We’ve been doing hybrid production at Third Wall Studio since before anyone called it that. I made Burlap for this precise use case: Start from original art and use it to style more images, explore variations, and generate the in-betweens.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/through-the-brambles/ 2026-05-11T00:00:00Z 2026-05-11T00:00:00Z

Through the Brambles, the 360° VR film from Third Wall Studio directed by Jacob McCoy, May 2026, built inside Burlap from prompted 360° imagery.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/about-awakening-to-blacklist/ 2020-11-21T00:00:00Z 2020-11-21T00:00:00Z

How the melody of Awakening (To Blacklist) came out of a recording of 60 cycle hum: a frequency shifter on the Spacebirds preset, wet/dry automation, and a happy accident with two frozen drum tracks. With the audio examples. By Sarth Calhoun, November 21, 2020.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/poughkeepsie/ 2018-07-15T00:00:00Z 2018-07-15T00:00:00Z

Poughkeepsie, Joe Kelly’s 2018 short film, whose main theme is the melody of Sarth Calhoun’s “Softly Questioning” from Reflections, Vol. 1.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/transmissions-from-the-book-of-sarth/ 2013T00:00:00Z 2013T00:00:00Z

Transmissions from the Book of Sarth, the 2013 four-track EP by Sarth Calhoun from the music of The Book of Sarth: Awakening (To Blacklist), Table (If I Can), Primary Defenestration (Deforestation), For Valentina (To Your Rescue).

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/book-of-sarth/ 2012T00:00:00Z 2012T00:00:00Z

Book of Sarth, the iPad gralbum Sarth Calhoun spent two and a half years making: a graphic novel and a concept album running as one work.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/lou-reed-live-at-lollapalooza-2009/ 2011-07-19T00:00:00Z 2011-07-19T00:00:00Z

Lou Reed Live at Lollapalooza 2009, the official DVD of Reed's Grant Park set of August 9, 2009, with Sarth Calhoun on electronics and Continuum, Rob Wasserman on bass and Ulrich Krieger on saxophone. Released July 19, 2011.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/conspiracies/power-and-serenity/ 2010-07T00:00:00Z 2010-07T00:00:00Z

Power and Serenity: six pieces of tai chi meditation music composed and performed by Lou Reed and Sarth Calhoun for Master Ren Guangyi’s DVD, on sale from July 2010. The first thing they made together.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/the-creation-of-the-universe/ 2009-05-19T00:00:00Z 2009-05-19T00:00:00Z

The Creation of the Universe, the 2009 double live album by Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio: Lou Reed, Ulrich Krieger and Sarth Calhoun, recorded over two nights at REDCAT in Los Angeles, October 2008.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/the-family-album/ 2008-02-12T00:00:00Z 2008-02-12T00:00:00Z

The Family Album, the 2008 album by Lucibel Crater: Leah Coloff, Paul Chuffo and Sarth Calhoun, with Lou Reed on guitar on Threadbare Funeral. Ten songs, mixed by Bryce Goggin.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/miracles/ 2007T00:00:00Z 2007T00:00:00Z

Miracles, the 2007 EP by Lucibel Crater: Leah Coloff, Paul Chuffo and Sarth Calhoun.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/suspension/ 2001T00:00:00Z 2001T00:00:00Z

Suspension, the 2001 album by Number19: Tony Diodore, Sarth Calhoun, Leah Coloff and Mark Righter. Nine songs on Searching Eye Records, paid for by mp3.com downloads.

Sarth Calhoun https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/i-before-e/ 2001T00:00:00Z 2001T00:00:00Z

I Before E, track six of Suspension by Number19, 2001, and Sarth Calhoun’s note ib4e and Robert Trujillo, written May 2022, as written.

Sarth Calhoun