The Sight Below is an alias of Rafael Anton Irisarri, an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, curator, producer and interdisciplinary artist based out of the Pacific Northwest. The music of The Sight Below conjures half-remembered dreams and soft-focus sentiments with elegiac beauty; like blurred snippets of film recognizable only as organic objects: black-and-white amoebas milling about, or a sunset rendered in grayscale. The resulting textured Gaussian curves are pinned to deep, propulsive bass tones and achingly subtle electronics. Glider – released on Ghostly International in Autumn 2008 – introduced a dark ambient techno aesthetic equally inspired by shoegaze, David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” and Wolfgang Voigt’s minimalistic rhythms. The album combined layer upon layer of processed guitars and electronics with muffled percussion and bass pulses, all improvised and recorded live.
Irisarri travels frequently to perform live throughout the world. In this context, he has collaborated twice with Austrian guitarist extraordinaire Fennesz, and toured extensively in North America, Europe and Australia. Past highlights include concerts at Barcelona’s Sónar Festival (2009), Montreal’s MUTEK (2009), Berlin’s Berghain (2009). Krakow’s Unsound (2008), Rotterdam’s DEAF (2012), London’s OpenFrame (2010) and Sevilla’s CICUS (2012). Aside from electronic music festivals, Irisarri has presented his works at multidisciplinary arts events, including Milan’s prestigious MITO SettembreMusica festival (2009) and Israel Festival (2010) in Jerusalem.
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