Erik Spangler

Bells of Penn Station

A skipping CD of children's music, an old accordion with sticky keys, some subterranean drums and synth bass, a departing train. Hoping to achieve some kind of glitchy transcendence through the broken fragments.

Maknongan Remix_10_4

For the upcoming Mobtown Modern show "Low Art" next Wednesday, Brian Sacawa will perform (among other pieces in the jumbo saxophone repertoire) "Maknongan" by Giacinto Scelsi (performed on bari sax... (more)

FaxBeat

A beat I created for "Die Faxmachine", a collaboration with composers Du Yun and Ken Ueno, who faxed in (to a live performance) a composition for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, and electronics, interpreted on... (more)

Z-Land Beat 1

This is one of several beat tracks for my new piece "Z-Land" for string orchestra, amplified string quartet, and DJ. The full piece will be performed by the Zeeland High School Orchestra (from Zeeland, MI... (more)

Dubble8 Club

In honor of my first year as a resident of Baltimore, here is my first track in the style of Baltimore Club (local dance music genre, around for the past 15 years, but little known outside the 410 area code... (more)

Rainy

A track created for a character called Rainy, on the North walk (entitled "Life Is Monumental") of "Charm City Remix", a site-specific narrative by Kianga Ford.

Pre-Dawn Artscape/Ghost Town

Memories of walking a coonhound in the small hours around the empty structures of Baltimore's Artscape festival before dawn- silent ferris wheel standing behind the rows of booths, vacant carnival... (more)

Harborplace Boombox Circle

A field recording of multiple boomboxes playing doctored field recordings of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, played back at the Inner Harbor.

Capricorn Instrumental

Preview of "Capricorn" (minus parts to be performed live) from Hybrid Groove Project's ZODIACROBATIC, an arrangement of Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Tierkreis", 12 melodies of the Zodiac. To be premiered... (more)

Farther Along

Rendition of the old spiritual, with melodica accompaniment.

Midnight Turning

Glacier, Stone, Lake

Ithaca College Percussion Ensemble with Dr. Spangler on turntables, December 2005. Scratches with Morton Subotnick's "Silver Apples of the Moon" and John Cage vinyl.

Composition inspired by the glacier formation of the Finger Lakes of NY.

Pastlife Laptops and Attic Instruments

Clarinet Sonnet

Performed by my wife, Marie Rinkoski, on clarinet. Recorded in the woods around Ithaca NY, and layered with some scratchy vinyl pops. This clarinet melody is the introduction to a song I wrote on one of Pablo Neruda's Sonnets.

Kawthar (Vance Quartet)

This piece was written for the Vance Quartet, a student clarinet quartet at Oberlin in 2002. My wife is one of the 2 bass clarinetists heard on this recording-- we'd known each other for a few months... (more)

Inner Circle: Chorale

A meditative space for guitar, harp, vibraphone, english horn, french horn, viola, cello, and double bass, from my large work "Mandala of the Four Directions" (2004).

How can I choose to sleep

I recorded this short solo vocal with a minidisc recorder while up in a tree. This is a one-take, one-track recording (with lots of delay added, to be sure). The bird you hear was actually accompanying... (more)

High Lonesome: 1st driving scene

I recorded this short piece on guitar for my friend Andy Hulse's 2003 film "High Lonesome". This part is for a driving scene with no dialogue. Early morning in a southwestern Texas landscape.

Through Water's Eyes (postlude)

In the summer of 2001, I took a road trip across the United States with two friends on some grant money from my grad school program. Our mission was to make a multimedia art documentary about... (more)

baltimore christmas 07

Anniversary

Every Time - remix 1

Credit Sequence

Music for the credits of a film called "High Lonesome" by Andrew Hulse. I originally wrote this for guitar, viola, and double bass. In this new version, the lead melody is played by my wife on clarinet.

greenspring ave

kashmiri

bali musicbox

mixing balinese gamelan with fisher price music box record player.

Lee County Estampie

Beat created for vocal collaborator Du Yun, mixed with a slowed-down Medieval recorder estampie. Created while dwelling in the suburban wilds of Cape Coral, Lee County, FL.

Old Turtle 3

The third section in a musical score to accompany the children's book "Old Turtle".

selfportrait with nancarrow

A cut-up of Conlon Nancarrow player piano, blended with saxophone by Brian Sacawa, layered with beats.

chalk outlines jazz1

Credits music for "Chalk Outlines", a film by Joe Zohar, Moving Box Studios.

Aurorabeat 1_sample

A sample from the "Aurorabeat" track off my "Tompkins County Organic" album.

Guzheng 1

A short beat interlude built on Chinese guzheng riff by Du Yun.

Selection from OY (feat. Du Yun, SKIP)

Check out the full song on the album "What They Never Told You" by S.K.I.P., or Du Yun's version of the song (also built on my beat, but with added live players) "Stay", on her MySpace... (more)

M9_remix_4

Mount Vernon Square 3

Wax cylinder recordings of waltzes chopped up and rearranged with saxophone improvisation by Brian Sacawa for Charm City Remix, an interactive audio walking tour of Baltimore by artist Kianga Ford.

Bunny's Noisy Book (youth collaboration 2)

This is another track resulting from a project in my digital music class at Oasis Charter Middle School (Spring 2007). Using a common pool of objects, my newborn daughter's baby... (more)

Old Turtle story (youth collaboration 1)

One in a series of collaborations that I did with students in my digital music class, back when I was teaching middle school. These are 7th and 8th graders at Oasis Charter Middle... (more)

Four Mile Cove (youth collaboration 3)

This piece grew out of a project in my digital music class at Oasis Charter Middle School (Cape Coral, FL) back in Fall 2006. I recorded some environmental sounds at night in the Four... (more)

I Can Feel It (feat. Mark Lemon)

From my past year as a music teacher in the Baltimore City Public School System, this production features one of my best students from MATHS Charter School, Mr. Mark Lemon, doing his thing over my beat "baltimore christmas 07".

Don't Go Away (feat. Sewella Barnes)

This is another song that came out of my year teaching at MATHS Charter School in the Baltimore City Public School System. Sewella Barnes was one of my students who would come after school... (more)

HGP Anthem

This song made a little splash in the New Music blogosphere back in July 2008. With possibly the first diss rap directed at modern chamber music groups, Hybrid Groove Project (that's DJ Dubble8 and new music... (more)

HGP Anthem (instrumental)

Scattered Glass

"putting new dope twists on licks that Philip Glass wrote"

-Hybrid Groove Project, "HGP Anthem"