Rafael Anton Irisarri is a multi-hyphenate American artist—composer, curator, producer, and mastering engineer—whose influence resonates throughout contemporary electronic music. Born in Puerto Rico to a working-class family of Basque, Spanish, and Italian immigrants, and raised between San Juan and the U.S. mainland, Irisarri’s early experiences of cultural diversity and displacement echo throughout his creative output. His music is a distinct alchemy of introspection and nostalgia, exploring the emotional interplay between technology, sound, silence, and the physical locations they inhabit.

Emerging from Seattle’s early 2000s electronic music scene, Irisarri signed with Ghostly International in 2008, releasing his debut as The Sight Below, the now-classic ambient techno album Glider. Under this alias, he introduced a soundworld that blended hazy guitar textures with submerged rhythms. It set the tone for a prolific artistic and audio engineering career spanning drone, post-classical, and experimental music.

In 2010, Irisarri founded Black Knoll Studio, a respected hub for boundary-pushing mixing and post-production. After relocating to New York’s Hudson Valley in 2014, he has established himself as one of the most sought-after mastering engineers within the global independent music community. Known for his refined ear, earnest approach, and meticulous touch, his credits include seminal artists like Terry Riley, Ryuichi Sakamoto, William Basinski, MONO, Devendra Banhart, Grouper, Emeralds, and Julianna Barwick.

A voracious collaborator, Irisarri has cultivated lasting relationships across the international music scene. He has contributed to a wide range of projects alongside pioneering composers, post-rock bands, and visual artists, including Abul Mogard, Arovane, Balmorhea, Benoît Pioulard, Biosphere, Christina Vantzou, David August, Florence To, James Heather, Joachim Spieth, Julia Kent, KMRU, Leandro Fresco, Lusine, Markus Guentner, Oliver Coates, Pantha Du Prince, Pepo Galán, Steve Hauschildt, and Tiny Vipers. Noted for his innate sense of polyphony and orchestration, Irisarri has lent his talents to production, remixes, guitar treatments, and sound design. Beyond his own Black Knoll Editions imprint, his work has appeared on dozens of influential independent labels worldwide, establishing him as a vital and trusted presence within the broader sound art community.

Over the last decade, his albums have drawn inspiration from metal, dream pop, and avant-garde music traditions. His palette is richly varied, featuring tape loops, bowed electric guitar, cello, piano, synths, and voice. These elements combine melody and harmony with expansive washes of thick, enveloping distortion and noise. His compositions are shaped by 20th-century art movements, reflecting the contemplative and refined forms characteristic of modernist painting and sculpture. Paying homage to the New York school of minimalism, he employs repetition—particularly in the form of ostinato—as a quiet act of resistance, challenging linear expectation and emphasizing subtle shifts in tone, duration, and perception. Irisarri’s body of work has earned widespread acclaim from leading outlets including the BBC, Electronic Sound, MOJO, NPR, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, Rockerilla, SPIN, The Wire, and Uncut.

As an international touring artist, Irisarri delivers captivating live sets often staged in unconventional venues: art museums, churches, synagogues, castles, planetariums, derelict factories, disused hangars, and even subterranean tunnels. Preferring these alternative venues to traditional clubs or bars—where background chatter and distractions can dilute the experience—he chooses localities where structures and sound converge to heighten the emotional and physical impact of his work. Irisarri breathes new life into these often overlooked or historically significant spaces through sound—transforming decay into vibrant resonance and stillness into a heightened sense of presence. The reverberation of his music within ancient stone walls and forgotten buildings invites audiences to fully engage their senses. By creating a dynamic dialogue between audio and architecture, his performances offer a rare opportunity for listeners to meditate on their connection to memory, place, and time—moments that linger long after the music ends.

Key live appearances include headlining concerts at Arnolfini Arts (UK), Basilika St. Aposteln (DE), Berghain (DE), Cafe OTO (UK), Casa del Lago UNAM (MX), Casa Montjuïc (ES), Centro de Cultura Condeduque (ES), Centro das Artes, Casa das Mudas (PT), Centrum Beeldende Kunst (NL), Chan Centre For The Performing Arts (CA), Dark Mofo (AU), Detroit Electronic Music Festival (US), Donaufestival (AT), Evolutionary Arts Hackney (UK), Fylkingen (SE), Galleria Civica Di Modena (IT), Gray Area Foundation For The Arts (US), H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Planetarium (CA), Institute of Modern Art (AU), Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts (AU), King’s Place (UK), Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER (BE), Kunstwerke Institute For Contemporary Art (DE), La Société des arts technologiques (CA), Le Guess Who? (NL), (le) Poisson Rouge (NY), M'ARS Centre For Audiovisual Art (RU), Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology (PL), MITO SettembreMusica (IT), Mole Vanvitelliana (IT), Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (IT), MUTEK (CA), MUTEK MX (MX), MUTEK ES (ES), Opera I Filharmonia Podlaska (PL), Pałac Branickich (PL), Planetarium De Nantes (FR), Planetárium Praha (CZ), San Fedele Acousmonium (IT), San Salvatore Bastion (GR), St. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church (GE), Seattle Art Museum (US), Sónar (ES), STUK Arts Center (BE), Synagoga Pod Białym Bocianem (PL), TodaysArt (NL), Unsound (PL), Uppsala Konsert Och Kongress (SE), UT Connewitz (DE), Vinterviken (SE), VIVO Media Arts (CA), and WORM (NL).

“A magical mix of music, space and atmosphere. Field recordings and sound arts mingling with composed works.” - BBC Radio (UK)

“It is a beautiful storm that breaks with choirs of benevolent ghosts singing - before slowly setting the audience back on the ground, surprisingly better rested, more contemplative, and satisfied than before… leaving the silence he induced, in absolute applause.” - KEXP (USA)

"Endlessly sorrowful melodies rippling through the church, growing louder and layered with deeper bass and hissing white noise. The woodwork of the church shudders, creaks, and groans under the resonating sound waves, submerging the audience as well. What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions." - de Volkskrant (NL)

“There's always an urgency of action implied by these rumblings and murmurings of something beyond all of us.” - The Wire (UK)

“Every single title, every single fragment of [his] work hits directly at the center of our heart, it addresses with extreme power the hidden and forgotten part that still quivers and struggles in the depths” - Rockerilla (IT)

“Irisarri is unafraid to use his mastery of the wordless soundscape to put forth messages that reflect the bleak and uncompromising times we’re living in.” – Popmatters (USA)

“Slowly shifting drone motifs latticed with fuzz…Irisarri’s work carries a particular sobering weight” - Electronic Sound (UK)

"Irisarri cultivates a reliable air of preoccupied melancholy" - Pitchfork (USA)