Logistics:
Dates: Thursday, June 30th
Times: 8pm-Midnight
Cost: $15 presales / $20 door
Location: GAFFTA, 998 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94131
Tickets:
http://bit.ly/kcPs6u
Rafael Anton Irisarri
(Room40/Ghostly International) – Seattle
Rafael Anton Irisarri is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and media artist based in Seattle, Washington. He is predominantly associated with post-minimalist, drone and electronic music, exploring textural aesthetics for over half a decade. His pointillist compositions lean towards ostinato motifs that tap into minimalist ideals while his studio production style is characterized by dense layers of reverb and delay, suggesting a blurred cinematic quality, like half-remembered dreams full of elegiac beauty. Bowed guitar textures, deep pulsing bass tones, field recordings, submerged piano notes, melancholic strings and subtle electronic counterpoints all contribute and converge equally in his music to create an oceanic experience that contrasts the epic and subdued, “like an ambient symphony recording that’s been rescued from attic entombment after half a century.” – Textura
Irisarri is also known as the main member of electronic music/shoegaze act The Sight Below and signed to American label Ghostly International.
http://soundcloud.com/studio-irisarri
Morgan Packard
(Anticipate/Konque) – NYC
Morgan Packard grew up in rural New England and planned to be a jazz saxophone player when he grew up. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in jazz school in Boston. There he discovered that jazz wasn’t the only cool music in the world. He quit studying jazz, moved to New York, and spent the next five years immersed in drum and bass music, which was the most explosively creative electronic music of the time.
Then he got tired of making only drum and bass music and studied western classical music and wrote little pieces for acoustic instruments for a while. He also learned how to program computers and started building his own music software. Programming his own tools allowed him to create sounds that no one else could make, and he began to feel like his own voice was finally shining through.
He started working closely with visualist/programmer Joshue Ott, and also found himself aligned with musician and label man Ezekiel Honig. Josh challenged him to write better software, Ezekiel challenged him to make an album for his label, Anticipate. His first solo album, “Airships Fill the Sky”, pricked up ears around the world, got good reviews, and people started buying him airplane tickets to travel and perform in their cities.
His sound is characterized by constantly shifting textures, a minimalist approach to rhythm, unconventional use of traditional acoustic instruments, and a sensitivity to melody and harmony. While his music is influenced by dub techno, ambient, and other established styles, it is best understood on its own terms, rather than through the lens of genre.
Recently, much of Morgan’s efforts have been directed toward Thicket, an experimental audiovisual app for the iPhone and iPad created in collaboration with Joshue Ott. Thicket has been a surprise success and was chosen by Apple as one of the ten best generative art & sound apps in its 2010 “Hot Trends” list.
http://http://soundcloud.com/morgan-packard/
agraph
(Ki/oon Recordings/Sony Music) - Japan
agraph is a solo unit of Kensuke Ushio. Kensuke started his career as
a technical audio engineer in 2003 and since then, he has supported
various artists’ studio productions as well as live shows. He made his
first release appearance under his own name Kensuke Ushio for a
compilation GATHERING TRAXX VOL.1 in 2007, on a label Platik run by
Takkyu Ishino, a notable figure of Techno scene in Japan. agraph’s
debut album “a day, phases” out in December 2008 made him well
recognized among those keen electronic music listeners and his live
performances seen at the Japan’s biggest indoor rave WIRE for 4
consecutive years led him an opportunity to play as an opening act for
Underworld from the UK. In 2011, agraph released his awaited second
album “equal”, which included a remix by Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai).
The tranquil and beautifully harmonized sound backed up with his tech
savvy know-how and well-crafted beats make agraph definitely a unique
and distinctive artist in today’s Japanese music scene.
http://soundcloud.com/agraph
