About

This website is designed to give you easy access to all of the creative music produced at the legendary Capitol Studios by students at CalArts over the past thirty-one years. Thanks to the generous support of Capitol Studios, EMI Music and Capitol Records, and now Universal Music Group, every spring since 1990 we have had the rare opportunity to record new original compositions by CalArts music students under ideal conditions, with the best recording engineers in the world.

The music you will hear is a small sample of the exceptional work done every year by musicians at CalArts. The process is open to everybody to submit new compositions, and a faculty committee selects the music with the goal of getting as many students into the studio as possible, representing the wide variety of interests of each year's group. The studio time is an invaluable experience (all tracks are recorded live), and we get to document some extraordinary and eclectic musical directions. A large percentage of the music on this project would not usually be labelled "jazz" - this is just the way we want it! At CalArts, there are no boundaries or limitations on creative exploration, so enjoy traveling through the contrasting styles, inventive instrumentation, and fresh and adventurous sounds.

An equally significant focus of this project is the collaboration with CalArts Graphic Design Program. The artwork on every CD is created by a design student chosen, like the music, in an open process. You will see their work before you hear the music.

You are free to stream or download the music and art, to browse our photo galleries, and even to link to each of the hundreds of talented musicians and graphic designers that have participated in our project over the years. See what these remarkable people are doing after their experience at CalArts.

Etienne Rivera. Photo by Scott Groller