sagittaire

Ivan Mairesse is a songwriter living in Los Angeles who makes music under the moniker Sagittaire. He's prolific - while living in San Francisco from 2012-2019, he churned out over 60 songs recorded in various studios. Those songs largely came as a way of processing the immense trauma Ivan experienced as a survivor of the 2016 Ghost Ship fire. In this Billboard piece, he details his experience that night, and how he barely made it out before the building was engulfed in smoke. 

The music that comes out of him is light in comparison to the heaviness of his experience - it sounds like Chris Cohen, or Cass McCombs, Beatles-esque levity covering a lurking darkness. On "Say Something Nice", Mairesse processes unhealthy friendships and situations he'd found himself in, his brush with death putting everything under a new light.

With a catalog of songs piling up behind him, it's been difficult for Mairesse to know where to start with sharing it. The forthcoming Lovely Music is his introduction to the world, a peak behind the curtain at a treasure trove of delicate, moving music.