Music
Press
"One of the coolest things to emerge in Baltimore last season was Mobtown Modern at the Contemporary Museum, a series of concerts featuring hotshot players and the kind of repertoire you'd usually have to travel to Lower Manhattan to hear.
Two of the guys behind Mobtown, brilliant saxophonist Brian Sacawa and unbridled turntablist/composer Erik Spangler (or DJ Dubble8), also collaborate under the name Hybrid Groove Project, and, in that guise, recently produced a wry, hip-hoppy track called HGP Anthem, which is well worth a spin."
-Tim Smith, July 3, 2008 - The Baltimore Sun: Critical Mass blog
Discography
Brian Sacawa: "American Voices" (2007) Innova Recordings
DJ Dubble8/S.K.I.P.: "What They Never Told You" (2006) Nonsense Records - iTunes Music
DJ Dubble8: "Fourth World Nyabinghi" (2006)
CD Baby
DJ Dubble8: "Tompkins County Organic: homegrown beats, vol. I" (2005) CD Baby
"WhatWALL?: pastlife laptops and attic instruments" [live multimedia performance on DVD] (2004)
Photos
Bio
Praised by The New York Times as "an inventive musician," "fresh and surprising," and "vividly lyrical," Grammy Award-winning concert saxophonist Brian Sacawa (born 1977) has firmly established himself as an important contemporary voice for his instrument. Named the Baltimore CITYPAPER's "Critic's Choice" for Classical Music for his evocative and engaging performances of music by Luciano Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sacawa has premiered over forty new works for saxophone by both established and emerging composers, including Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Bright Sheng, Keeril Makan, Hillary Zipper, and Erik Spangler.
A featured soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician internationally, Sacawa's versatile career has led to performances with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, International Contemporary Ensemble, Other Minds BRINK Series, Bargemusic, SPARK Festival of Electronic Music an Art, and the Harvard Group for New Music. His critically-acclaimed recordings can be heard on the Naxos, Equilibrium, and BiBimBop record labels. He is the co-founder of the Hybrid Groove Project with composer/turntablist DJ Dubble8 and the new music duo Non-Zero with percussionist Timothy Feeney.
Sacawa holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and the University of Massachusetts--Amherst, where he studied with Donald Sinta, Gary Louie, and Lynn Klock. He has served on the faculty at the University of Arizona and currently resides in Baltimore, MD.
A renegade Doctor of Music from Harvard University, DJ Dubble8 (a.k.a. Erik Spangler) is a composer and turntablist whose hybrid soundscapes thrive on a unique blend of experimental and popular influences. Samples from old vinyl records, programmed drum patterns, newly composed acoustic layers, and synthetic sound elements are all subject to live time-bending through digital turntable manipulation.
Dubble8’s acoustic compositions have been performed across the United States and Canada, by ensembles including the Atlantic Brass Quintet, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, International Contemporary Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, and the yesaroun’ duo.
Performances as a turntablist include collaboration with Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Ithaca College Percussion Ensemble; bassonist Dana Jessen; saxophonist Brian Sacawa [co-member of Hybrid Groove Project] in performances at the University of Michigan, Philadelphia Ethical Society Hall, University of Arizona; club performances from Upstate NY to FL; music commissioned for Ithaca College's First Year Reading Initiative remix, entitled "Dismantling War: World War II, Vietnam, Iraq", in collaboration with renowned video artists Art Jones and Simon Tarr, in partnership with the Human Studies Film Archive of the Smithsonian Institution.
A committed teacher, Dubble8 has served on the faculty of institutions ranging from Ithaca College to Oasis Middle School (Cape Coral, FL). He currently teaches music at Maryland Academy of Technology and Health Sciences (charter high school in Baltimore, MD).
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