Photo by Nikita Grushevskiy

Photo by Nikita Grushevskiy

Rafael Anton Irisarri is a composer, record producer, and mastering engineer living in New York.

Over the years, Irisarri’s sonic fingerprints are audible in much of the past decade’s most vital electronic music and beyond. His mastering studio, black Knoll, is credited on releases from a veritable who’s who of left-field electronica, modern classical, and ambient-adjacent music – from Terry Riley, Ryuichi Sakamoto, William Basinski, MONO, Grouper, and Devendra Banhart to Eluvium, Julia Kent, Clarice Jensen, Oliver Coates, Arovane, Scanner, and Telefon Tel Aviv.

Irisarri’s compositions field an array of modern ambient overtones threaded through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound. Irisarri often explores themes of introspection, nostalgia, and the interplay between sound and emotion. His albums portray these common themes giving way to metal and classical influences that emphasizes Irisarri’s melancholic tendencies. These unique overtures, coupled with his signature layering of distortion and bleached-out textures, fabricate an audible environment that gracefully complement each other. Alongside his own influential records, he’s collaborated and released music with dozens of artists, including Julianna Barwick, Biosphere, Leandro Fresco, Steve Hauschildt, and Benoît Pioulard.

Irisarri travels frequently to perform live internationally. His concerts at churches, synagogues, museums, and other non-traditional performance spaces explore the physicality of sound. Combining an array of bass amps, multiple loudspeaker configurations, synths, bowed guitar, computers, and lighting, irisarri decontextualize the audience’s relationship to the venue, creating an immersive, otherworldly environment. Highlights include concerts at Barcelona’s Sónar, Mexico City’s MUTEK, Krakow’s Unsound, and Tasmania’s Dark Mofo. Aside from electronic music festivals, Irisarri has presented his works at multidisciplinary arts events, including Milan’s prestigious Mito Settembremusica, the Hague’s Todaysart, and Dissolving Localities in Jerusalem.