cloud collecting #40: Austin Ray
on childhood origins, nature sounds connected to memories + improvising
This week, I’m thrilled to share a conversation with Southern California–based musician Austin Ray. We first connected through the incredible
(be sure to follow her newsletter), a fellow community builder, musician, and film composer, who realized that both Austin and I were exploring the intersection of ambient and Americana in our latest albums before they were released. After meeting Austin at the Pasadena listening party for my project Almost An Island, we reconnected to talk creativity, soundscapes, and the stories behind her just released album Salton Sea: Ambient Americana.
A music composer and film co-director, Austin Ray grew up on the Californian/Mexican border. Musically, her natural style is cinematic and atmospheric, yet melody-driven. It evokes images of hidden pathways, wide-open spaces, and forgotten history using a blend of real instruments and electronics. She has scored commercials for BMW, Amazon, United Nations, Wildlife Conservation Society, etc. Her original music can be heard in “Into the Silent Sea” (dir. Andrej Landin) and “Chiaroscuro” (dir. Daniel Drummond), which have won the Student Academy Award and BAFTA Student Film Award, premiered at Telluride Film Festival and Palm Spring Int’l Short Festival, among others. In the documentary realm, she has composed shorts starring NBA basketball star Blake Griffith for Players’ Tribune, along with Island Earth, a feature documentary on the issue of GMO’s. Her co-directorial debut, “The Listening Box”, which she additionally composed, was honored by the Directors Guild of America and was a Semi-Finalist at the Student Academy Awards, along with the Austin Film Festival [Audience Award Winner] and Savannah Film Festival [HBO Best Student Short Winner]. In 2019, she received the Kinsale Shark Award for Best New Music Composer and is a member of AWFC and SCL. In late 2022, her debut instrumental Artist EP “Minerals” released, inspired by the natural landscapes and elements that ground us and influenced by artists like Ólafur Arnalds, Ludovico Einadui, Enya, and Hania Rani.
1. Your beautiful new album Salton Sea: Ambient Americana, along with the accompanying Splice sound pack, draws deep inspiration from the Southern California region where you grew up. When did the concept for the project first take shape, and how long did it take to bring it to life?
I met someone from Splice organically at SXSW, and a simple conversation about my childhood origins evolved into an unexpected, full-blown creative pitch for a unique sound pack in the genre of Ambient Americana. I grew up on an aquaculture farm on the Californian/Mexican border, so the Salton Sea was always a familiar presence. This album is a love letter to this beautiful, strange, and cinematic desert full of paradoxical history. For months I sampled, collected, researched & recorded a mixture of ambience, field recordings, atmospheric synths, felted piano, folk guitar, and ethereal vocals. I was inspired by Brian Eno, Enya, Ludovico Einaudi, as much as alt-folk musicians like Bon Iver, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Ryan Beatty, Hovvdy, or Americana country artists like Colter Wall and Lainey Wilson. For a behind-the-scenes look into the making of my album, check out this video:
2. The album’s excellent use of field recordings includes windchimes, birds, and passing trains. I’d love to hear about your history with field recordings and what you learned while recording nature sounds from this specific project.
Years ago, I had taken foley & sound design classes while at film school. While filming a documentary in Iceland, I captured sounds of creaking ice glaciers, native Puffins, and rustling fields of Lupin to integrate into the music score. However, since then I’ve only sporadically used field recordings—until this recent album.
By now, I’ve learned to hear nature sounds through the lens of music production, taking aspects like sonic texture and EQ placement into account. For example, desert wind has a lovely high-EQ texture of air, like a soft, evolving white noise. The geothermal pipes and steel farm machinery I recorded has a bass-y, percussive sound that can be spliced into a rhythmic beat. The cooing of mourning doves reminds me of peaceful mornings; the distant blare of a train horn signifies the vast emptiness of the desert; and the gentle waves of the Salton Sea immediately transport me back to its sandy shores as I sifted for shells as a child.
3. How do you cloud collect (connect to childlike wonder) in your creativity?
Obviously, returning to the geographic landscapes of my childhood made it easy to tap into my inner child on this project. For me, it helps to stare at visuals of an environment and then press record, just to see what I come up with during improvisational piano takes. It removes pressure, and reminds me to play (in both meanings of the word!). I love this question, because it encourages me to follow my instincts 100% and simply explore.
Gorgeous album!