Innovative and transcendently vibrant vocalist, songwriter, & electronic composer.

Conjuring melodies and performances that cross the borders of genre, to linger in your heart and wander in your mind long after you hear them. As only a nomad and improviser can.

Rachel Austin is a multidisciplinary vocalist, electronic composer, songwriter, and performance artist. Her work has an obsession with the sublime with impulses toward melody, the unexpected, and electronics.

Austin's songs stretch the borders of anit-folk and experimental pop, reflecting the influences of both her childhood home in the mountains of Virginia and her nomadic homes in Belfast, New York, and Oakland.

With a voice that soars "like an earth angel" (Hot Press Magazine) and song writing that is "at once haunted and uplifting, yearning yet triumphant" (Daily Mirror), Austin adds junk tremolo guitar to create a unique sound all her own.

What People Are saying about Rachel

PERFORMER

In live performances, Rachel weaves vocals and songs together using simple voice and loop station arrangements, making playful yet bold statements.

She has performed in various works as singer, electronic composer, and performance artist/dancer, including with Kronos Quartet, Fred Frith, Okkyung Lee, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, Zeena Parkins, inkBoat, the Irish National Symphony Orchestra, Maria Chavez, Alvin Curran, and ikon. She has performed with dancers Molissa Fenley, Anna Halprin, Sherwood Chen, Yuko Kaseki, and Tadashi Endo. She has performed at the Irish National Concert Hall, Christchurch Cathedral, Centro de Cultura Digital, NIME, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Oxygen Festival, Big Air Festival, Waveley Labs, the MAC, Greenbelt Festival, OPA, Jazz in the Neighborhood, and on BBC Radio 1, Radio 4, BBC Radio Ulster, RTE 2, Radio Libertaire, and NPR.

COMPOSER & COLLABORATOR

Austin has completed commissions and residencies at Kunstuniverstät Graz, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Visible Records, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Christchurch Cathedral (Dublin), Habitat for Humanity, pateldanceworks, New City Arts Initiative, Round Antennae, and the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. Her book, Learning But Never Knowing, was published through Statement Press in collaboration with Amira Hegazy and Sholeh Asgary. It's available through Printed Matter, Inc and in the shop.
 

“ Her words are open and heartfelt, and melodies linger, creating a perfect balance of emotion and light.” - Sentimentalist Magazine