I Putu Gede Sukaryana (Balot)

I Putu Gede Sukaryana, better known as Balot, began taking gamelan seriously when he enrolled at the high school arts conservatory SMK 3 Sukawati at the age of 15. After graduation he enrolled in the karawitan program at Institut Seni Indonesia, Denpasar, where he engaged with talented and aspiring musicians from across Bali and realized a future dedicated to music was possible. By the time he completed his arts education on Bali he was already a highly sought after performer, and since graduation he has been invited to lead several high-caliber international collaborations, including reworks of Scarlatti’s keyboard music and Bach fugues for Yantra Productions (Italy), experiments with Lithuanian electronic musician and composer Paulius Kilbauskas, and collaborative compositions with American composer Wayne Vitale. His work is recognized internationally and celebrated for its originality and emphasis on process over product. In 2016 he co-founded the record label and arts collective Insitu Recordings with Jonathan Adams and is currently the project’s artistic director. In 2017 he accepted a visiting artist residency at the University of British Columbia, where he got his Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology.