Biography
Erich Barganier (b. 1991) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist hailing from St. Petersburg, Florida, who currently resides between New York City and Montreal. He writes chamber, orchestral, film, solo instrumental and electronic music that explores experimental technology, the edge of noise, improvisation, generative processes, and new forms of notation. His music has been released on People Places Records, [walnut+locust], Belts and Whistles Records, Infrequent Seams, Off Latch Press, Nebularosa Records, Pleroma Records, NOUS Records, and Janus Music and Sound.
Barganier's works have been presented by Bang on a Can, The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), Mostly Modern Festival, The New Music Gathering, National Sawdust, Le Poisson Rouge, Diffrazioni Festival, Spectra Malaysia, La Vitrola, Arts, Letters, & Numbers, New Music New College, New York University, Spectrum NYC, The University of Wisconsin, The University of Georgia, The University of North Georgia, and The University of Alabama, among others.
He has written for Mivos Quartet, NOW Ensemble, Ashley Bathgate, Sybarite5, Quince, Bearthoven, Sandbox Percussion Ensemble, and Righteous Girls, among others. He has served as an artist-in-residence at CIRMMT (McGill University, Montreal, QC) and Westben Artist Retreat (Westben, ON).
Barganier began studying composition and theory under Mark Dancigers while attending New College of Florida (B.A., 2014). He pursued further studies at New York University, taking private lessons with Julia Wolfe, Robert Honstein, Joan La Barbara and Tae Hong Park (M.M. 2019).
He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2014 and taught English at the Belarus State University of Culture and Arts in Minsk while collecting regional folk songs and performing traditional American music across Eastern Europe.
As a performer, Barganier has studied and played music across a wide swathe of styles and genres. His "twinkling instrumental work" as part of the Baker-Barganier Duo has been praised by Bao-le Huu of the Orlando Weekly and helped garner the title of "Best Local Album Release of 2017" from Tampa Bay's Creative Loafing for the Baker-Barganier Duo's debut album ...and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Erich has additionally performed as a multi-instrumentalist, as a solo artist, and in ensembles, having supported the likes of Joan LaBarbara, Elliott Sharp, ETHEL, Robert Mirabel, Esther Lamneck and many others.
His scores can be purchased directly through this website's contact form or through his publisher, BabelScores. Students and faculty at select universities with BabelScores access may retrieve his compositions for free.
Artist Statement
Creating a deep, visceral response in listeners lies at the heart of my compositional output, taking the form of chamber music or solos written for live musicians, multichannel fixed audio pieces, or multimedia installations that marry homemade and self-processed video with experimental electronic music. This work carves a niche in the current musical landscape, blending the uncanny and strange into something wholly unique.
As a performer-composer who works across musical genres and as a visual artist, I have become acutely aware of the importance of flexibility and combining influences from a variety of styles. My own compositions not only marry timbres and sonic material from jazz, noise rock, experimental electronica, and contemporary classical musical styles, but my process has been greatly inspired by the creative methods outlined in Andre Breton’s manifestos of surrealism. I strive to develop my works with these methods in mind, which include collage and automatic writing, among many others.
I translate these techniques from their visual and literary counterparts to the audio world in order to accurately capture the spirit of creation of each method. For example, in lieu of traditional collage, I incorporate sonic quotations using electronic samples taken from television or radio advertisement or notated phrases lifted from famous operas or orchestral works that live musicians can realize. For notated works, I use graphic notation and non-standard musical notation to encourage the performers to improvise, creating the same spontaneous feeling in a live performance as automatic writing generates in literature.
In addition to using surrealist creation techniques in a sonic context, experimental and generative coding techniques inform the vast majority of my installation work and electronic music. I actively code in the computer language Supercollider and use the flexibility of the language to create works that give the computer agency to make creative decisions. I accomplish this through the use of neural networks and parameters that rely on randomness to give my pieces a sense of life that otherwise not be heard in a fixed installation. This form of music creation not only provides the audience with a distinct sound world full of unheard timbres that have never before been heard, but can also marry the above listed surrealist techniques into an electronic context.
My work blends elements of violence and absurdity that jar the listener. It is visceral, unrelenting, and captures the grotesque essence of the modern world in which we live.
Erich Barganier (b. 1991) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist hailing from St. Petersburg, Florida, who currently resides between New York City and Montreal. He writes chamber, orchestral, film, solo instrumental and electronic music that explores experimental technology, the edge of noise, improvisation, generative processes, and new forms of notation. His music has been released on People Places Records, [walnut+locust], Belts and Whistles Records, Infrequent Seams, Off Latch Press, Nebularosa Records, Pleroma Records, NOUS Records, and Janus Music and Sound.
Barganier's works have been presented by Bang on a Can, The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), Mostly Modern Festival, The New Music Gathering, National Sawdust, Le Poisson Rouge, Diffrazioni Festival, Spectra Malaysia, La Vitrola, Arts, Letters, & Numbers, New Music New College, New York University, Spectrum NYC, The University of Wisconsin, The University of Georgia, The University of North Georgia, and The University of Alabama, among others.
He has written for Mivos Quartet, NOW Ensemble, Ashley Bathgate, Sybarite5, Quince, Bearthoven, Sandbox Percussion Ensemble, and Righteous Girls, among others. He has served as an artist-in-residence at CIRMMT (McGill University, Montreal, QC) and Westben Artist Retreat (Westben, ON).
Barganier began studying composition and theory under Mark Dancigers while attending New College of Florida (B.A., 2014). He pursued further studies at New York University, taking private lessons with Julia Wolfe, Robert Honstein, Joan La Barbara and Tae Hong Park (M.M. 2019).
He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2014 and taught English at the Belarus State University of Culture and Arts in Minsk while collecting regional folk songs and performing traditional American music across Eastern Europe.
As a performer, Barganier has studied and played music across a wide swathe of styles and genres. His "twinkling instrumental work" as part of the Baker-Barganier Duo has been praised by Bao-le Huu of the Orlando Weekly and helped garner the title of "Best Local Album Release of 2017" from Tampa Bay's Creative Loafing for the Baker-Barganier Duo's debut album ...and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Erich has additionally performed as a multi-instrumentalist, as a solo artist, and in ensembles, having supported the likes of Joan LaBarbara, Elliott Sharp, ETHEL, Robert Mirabel, Esther Lamneck and many others.
His scores can be purchased directly through this website's contact form or through his publisher, BabelScores. Students and faculty at select universities with BabelScores access may retrieve his compositions for free.
Artist Statement
Creating a deep, visceral response in listeners lies at the heart of my compositional output, taking the form of chamber music or solos written for live musicians, multichannel fixed audio pieces, or multimedia installations that marry homemade and self-processed video with experimental electronic music. This work carves a niche in the current musical landscape, blending the uncanny and strange into something wholly unique.
As a performer-composer who works across musical genres and as a visual artist, I have become acutely aware of the importance of flexibility and combining influences from a variety of styles. My own compositions not only marry timbres and sonic material from jazz, noise rock, experimental electronica, and contemporary classical musical styles, but my process has been greatly inspired by the creative methods outlined in Andre Breton’s manifestos of surrealism. I strive to develop my works with these methods in mind, which include collage and automatic writing, among many others.
I translate these techniques from their visual and literary counterparts to the audio world in order to accurately capture the spirit of creation of each method. For example, in lieu of traditional collage, I incorporate sonic quotations using electronic samples taken from television or radio advertisement or notated phrases lifted from famous operas or orchestral works that live musicians can realize. For notated works, I use graphic notation and non-standard musical notation to encourage the performers to improvise, creating the same spontaneous feeling in a live performance as automatic writing generates in literature.
In addition to using surrealist creation techniques in a sonic context, experimental and generative coding techniques inform the vast majority of my installation work and electronic music. I actively code in the computer language Supercollider and use the flexibility of the language to create works that give the computer agency to make creative decisions. I accomplish this through the use of neural networks and parameters that rely on randomness to give my pieces a sense of life that otherwise not be heard in a fixed installation. This form of music creation not only provides the audience with a distinct sound world full of unheard timbres that have never before been heard, but can also marry the above listed surrealist techniques into an electronic context.
My work blends elements of violence and absurdity that jar the listener. It is visceral, unrelenting, and captures the grotesque essence of the modern world in which we live.