Collaboration

The heart of my practice is collaboration, whether with sonic, visual, or gestural artists, in both in-person and digital contexts. The multiplicity of this work includes deep listening workshops, video synthesis for composers, experimental sonospheres, improvised percussion, and scriptwriting for public broadcast.

Before it Turns

A remote collaboration between Bora Yoon, Maritza Garibay, and Austin T. Richey for Sō Percussion’s Brooklyn Bound series. Voice, DIY synthesizers, acoustic and found sounds come together to create a sonic space for reflection and ritual. The trio contributed a collection of videos which were transformed into a cohesive visual scape by Maritza. Premiered June 17, 2021.

Yara Duet

Yara Duet is a reverberation of the late Milford Graves' spirit, music, philosophy, and teachings. On February 12, 2021, Professor Graves passed on, leaving behind a singular legacy as an herbalist, martial artist, and ground-breaking percussionist. To honor of his effervescent energy and music, David Hurley and Austin T. Richey came together for the first time to record a triptych of improvised drum duets. Using a collection of drums, cymbals, bells, shakers, gongs, woodblocks, found percussion, and single reed wind instruments, we create a sonic palette that resonates with Graves' multivalent output and allows our extended improvisation to tell a story through rhythm and non-Western melodic materials.

Sonic Tonic

Sonic Tonic is a text score composed by Pauline Oliveros in 1981. In our performance, Maritza Garibay and Austin T. Richey use objective testing to find beneficial sounds for participants Alisha Fillip and Zac Bru. These tests were conducted separately; all correspondences between the two individual recordings are strictly coincidental. Instruments include one large aluminum mixing bowl played with a variety of mallets and brushes, with the occasional addition of water, as well as a Tocante Phashi and Tocante Bistab built by Peter Blasser of Ciat-Lonbarde. Garibay and Richey also programmed the visual synthesis for the work. This sonospheric experiment was premiered July 24th, 2021 as part of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute.

Sound Field: How James Brown Invented Funk

In the first episode of the award winning digital series Sound Field, hosts Nahre Sol and L.A. Buckner dive deep into the history and music theory behind James Brown’s signature funk aesthetic. Austin T. Richey provided research, scriptwriting, and consultation work for the episode.

Four Hands

Maritza Garibay and Austin T. Richey perform an improvised set of electronic music using their homemade synthesizers.

Composition No. 131

This ensemble, led by Austin T. Richey on drums, performs a unique arrangement of Anthony Braxton’s Composition No. 131 utilizing excerpts from Braxton’s compositional book and improvisation. For this performance, Richey researched Braxton’s oeuvre and developed a performance methodology based on the graphic sketches included in the composition.

Simba Marimba/Serevende Mbira

Simba Marimba and Serevende Mbira, Eastman School of Music’s in house Zimbabwean music ensembles, perform a selection of works taught to us by our Zimbabwean instructors.

Tempo Dilation (No. 1)

“‘Tempo Dilation (No. 1)’ engages with the concept of time dilation as a basis for musical experimentation. Musically, time is represented on 3 planes in spatial counterpoint: 1. mid frequency linear "melodic" rhythms, 2. a high frequency pulse that recontextualizes the melodic rhythms through a series of changing metric grids, and 3. an ambient pitch cloud that contextualizes these rhythmic elements by providing a meterless, stationary backdrop. Throughout the piece, the melodic rhythms revisits a primary theme—forwards and backwards, at different rates, in and against duple, triple, and quadruple meters—while a second theme plays against them, awash in the ambient pitch cloud.” Pascal Le Boeuf - Composer Notes Premiered July 25, 2020

Sonic Memories//Quarantine Connections

An international project where participants engaged in interviews, field recordings, studio composition, as well as musical techniques and manipulations to construct an experimental, electro-acoustic album that reflects the many perspectives, histories, and lived experiences that compose the quarantine experience.

In C

In C, composed by Terry Riley in 1964, is a piece that is minimalist in theory yet maximalist in scope. Written for flexible instrumentation, Riley’s work requires the ensemble members to perform small modules of music with open ears that are attuned to the movement of their colleagues throughout the piece. In this iteration, performed for the Sō Percussion 2021 Collaborative Workshop, nine musicians use voice, french horn, drumset, violin, bassoon, and more. The virtual nature of the workshop made it ever more crucial to listen to the tracks others performed to elicit the feeling of slowly meandering through the work. Visual synthesis was provided by Austin T. Richey and Maritza Garibay.

Sound Field: Who Invented Trap Music?

In this episode of Sound Field, Nahre Sol and L.A. Buckner unpack the rhythms and culture behind trap music, from its origins via Atlanta’s Three 6 Mafia, to its influence on multiple hip hop genres. Austin T. Richey provided research, scriptwriting, and consultation work for the episode.

Heretical Jerks/Mini Plumb