Rafael Anton Irisarri

Rafael Anton Irisarri is an American artist, producer, and mastering engineer who composes ambient, drone, and post-minimalist music. His recordings heavily utilize field recordings, bowed guitars, strings, and electronics, creating dense clouds of blurry, hypnotic sound that often have a mournful, elegiac quality. He has performed concerts in collaboration with numerous experimental, electronic, and indie musicians, including <a href="spotify:artist:2DoQBgPsB9AdmWpIa2hUSz">Fennesz</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4paVd8Xh0qCuX09r68eMMj">Greg Davis</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:31uyAcnY0kjjKKIQZMKX4i">Grouper</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0V1EXFlRy3LeOKB07YJucI">Lawrence English</a>. Since 2007, Irisarri has co-curated numerous experimental music festivals and concerts, including Seattle's Decibel Festival and Substrata, as well as events related to the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ghostly+International%22">Ghostly International</a> label. He has created live visuals for <a href="spotify:artist:2fMe9lZs5HGGOwh8cMSIub">Lusine</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:46TYNnrpqzYjm5HjaMBVhj">Solvent</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:04vKt87g10XVIxBfGxj5vW">Simon Scott</a>, and several other artists. He also records shoegaze-influenced ambient techno as <a href="spotify:artist:1nqF8RQ0Vg9fh67WiQCroY">the Sight Below</a>, and collaborates with dream pop singer/songwriter <a href="spotify:artist:77SQlBEZyyJ7neYnlp0cDl">Benoît Pioulard</a> under the name <a href="spotify:artist:6KUngtrmJAZEvlrRIKNYC7">Orcas</a>. His solo discography includes releases on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Room40%22">Room40</a> (such as 2013's The Unintentional Sea), <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Umor+Rex%22">Umor Rex</a> (2017's The Shameless Years LP and several cassettes), and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Dais+Records%22">Dais Records</a> (2020's Peripeteia). His own <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Black+Knoll+Editions%22">Black Knoll Editions</a> has issued releases such as 2024's Façadisms.

Irisarri's debut release was the full-length Daydreaming, issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Miasmah%22">Miasmah</a> in 2007, a haunting album of slow-moving, atmospheric piano works reminiscent of composers such as <a href="spotify:artist:3uOCouLFR4bVx0XeiQJSbl">Harold Budd</a>. The following year saw the release of <a href="spotify:artist:1nqF8RQ0Vg9fh67WiQCroY">the Sight Below</a>'s No Place for Us EP and Glider full-length, although the project's identity was kept anonymous at the time. Its synthesizer-free combination of steady, minimal techno beats and atmospheric guitars struck a chord with listeners, receiving critical acclaim as well as attention from <a href="spotify:artist:4Z8W4fKeB5YxbusRsdQVPb">Radiohead</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:4CvTDPKA6W06DRfBnZKrau">Thom Yorke</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:1nqF8RQ0Vg9fh67WiQCroY">the Sight Below</a> performed at several music festivals throughout Europe and North America, in addition to touring with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ghostly%22">Ghostly</a> labelmate <a href="spotify:artist:2fMe9lZs5HGGOwh8cMSIub">Lusine</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:1nqF8RQ0Vg9fh67WiQCroY">The Sight Below</a> toured with <a href="spotify:artist:72X6FHxaShda0XeQw3vbeF">Slowdive</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:04vKt87g10XVIxBfGxj5vW">Simon Scott</a> in 2009, and released the Murmur EP (including remixes by <a href="spotify:artist:04vKt87g10XVIxBfGxj5vW">Scott</a> as well as <a href="spotify:artist:2rcnAZ6DvORQ365X3zVYpr">Biosphere</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4QK3YJ6hzJdhJHE9q7kbVV">Eluvium</a>). The year 2009 also saw the release of Irisarri's "Hopes and Past Desires" 7" single on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Immune%22">Immune</a> label.

Arriving in 2010, It All Falls Apart, <a href="spotify:artist:1nqF8RQ0Vg9fh67WiQCroY">the Sight Below</a>'s second album for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ghostly%22">Ghostly</a>, was a full collaboration between Irisarri and <a href="spotify:artist:04vKt87g10XVIxBfGxj5vW">Scott</a>. The album also featured guest vocalist Jesy Fortino (<a href="spotify:artist:4kgIlus6ToyP9mUHoIvLtc">Tiny Vipers</a>) on a cover of <a href="spotify:artist:432R46LaYsJZV2Gmc4jUV5">Joy Division</a>'s "New Dawn Fades." Also that year, Irisarri released the Reverie EP on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Immune%22">Immune</a> under his own name, followed by the full-length The North Bend on <a href="spotify:artist:0V1EXFlRy3LeOKB07YJucI">Lawrence English</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Room40%22">Room40</a> label. As <a href="spotify:artist:1nqF8RQ0Vg9fh67WiQCroY">the Sight Below</a>, he remixed <a href="spotify:artist:7Go2Fj2YWEQkYBqTVQArYi">Pantha du Prince</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2rcnAZ6DvORQ365X3zVYpr">Biosphere</a> in 2011. The self-titled debut by <a href="spotify:artist:6KUngtrmJAZEvlrRIKNYC7">Orcas</a>, Irisarri's dream pop collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:77SQlBEZyyJ7neYnlp0cDl">Benoît Pioulard</a>, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Morr+Music%22">Morr Music</a> in 2012. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Room40%22">Room40</a> issued The Unintentional Sea, Irisarri's third full-length under his own name, in 2013. <a href="spotify:artist:6KUngtrmJAZEvlrRIKNYC7">Orcas</a>' sophomore album, Yearling, appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Morr+Music%22">Morr Music</a> in 2014.

On Memorial Day weekend of that year, as Irisarri and his wife were preparing to move from Seattle to New York, all of their belongings were stolen, including over $50,000 worth of musical gear. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ghostly%22">Ghostly</a> set up an online fundraising campaign for Irisarri that eventually raised over $18,000. This campaign also included an extremely limited vinyl release of Unfurled, an EP featuring the final <a href="spotify:artist:1nqF8RQ0Vg9fh67WiQCroY">Sight Below</a> track recorded in Seattle as well as remixes by Markus Guentner, <a href="spotify:artist:3GM5cpCBadq2PMHjFoEvhK">Loscil</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2r01Y1iNjVr8W88RuseQLf">Yagya</a>, and others.

In 2015, Irisarri issued two EPs under his own name (Will Her Heart Burn Anymore and Unsaid), and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Room40%22">Room40</a> released A Fragile Geography, his darkest, most intense work to date. Irisarri's collaboration with Argentina-based ambient composer <a href="spotify:artist:0gJgTQEVl62dN80lQbOBK5">Leandro Fresco</a>, La Equidistancia, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22A+Strangely+Isolated+Place%22">A Strangely Isolated Place</a> in 2017. The solo album The Shameless Years appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Umor+Rex%22">Umor Rex</a> the same year. This was followed by Midnight Colours, which was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Geographic+North%22">Geographic North</a> in 2018. Two <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Umor+Rex%22">Umor Rex</a> cassettes, El Ferrocarril Desvaneciente and Sirimiri, also appeared in 2018. Solastalgia was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Room40%22">Room40</a> in 2019. A second collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:0gJgTQEVl62dN80lQbOBK5">Fresco</a>, Una Presencia en la Brisa, appeared at the beginning of 2020. Peripeteia, Irisarri's first release on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Dais+Records%22">Dais Records</a>, was released four months later.

In 2022, Irisarri released Agitas al Sol on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Room40%22">Room40</a>, and Sacred Hatred on his own <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Black+Knoll+Editions%22">Black Knoll Editions</a>. A remastered edition of Midnight Colours appeared in 2024, as well as the <a href="spotify:artist:4bNteCe0Beu161GmkB8Rq7">Abul Mogard</a> collaboration Impossibly distant, impossibly close and a third <a href="spotify:artist:6KUngtrmJAZEvlrRIKNYC7">Orcas</a> album, How to Color a Thousand Mistakes. Façadisms, described as a late capitalist lament, was released in November; the album included a collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:5blZUSGq0z7HhuSldSXV3a">KMRU</a> as well as contributions by <a href="spotify:artist:2YJXo1ERQAO7r4hQtu2vFc">Julia Kent</a>, T. R. Jordan, and others. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi