Draft:Ari Balouizan

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Ari Balouizan (born March 21, 1989) is an American Composer, Producer, Singer and Songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA. He is a founding member of LA based soul trio Gabriels. He owns and works out of the award winning creative studio Appraiser.

He composed the soundtracks to Some Kind Of Heaven (Dir. Lance Oppenheim; Prod. Darren Aronofsky and Feels good man (Dir. Arthur Jones). Balouzian also scored Lance Oppenheim's 3-part 2024 docuseries Ren Faire for HBO.

Early Life

Balouzian was born to Armenian parents who run a shoe brand and factory in Burbank, California called 'Cydwoq' Pronounced 'Sidewalk'.. His father Rafi Balouzian is the designer. He studied music at Colburn School performing in their Jazz band, Quartet and Orchestra Da Camera that performed in Zipper Hall and Disney Hall.

Balouzian graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in linguistics.

Music

Balouzian formed the band Midnight Sister with Julianna Giraffe releasing two albums with JagJaguwar. The latter Painting The Roses Red received 7.0 from Pitchfork who say his string arrangments 'inspire an even more remote vision of the city; his cinematic stings on "Escalators" and the title track conjure the drama of Old Hollywood film scores, the kind performed in theaters by live orchestras.'

Midnight Sister supported Perfume Genius on their 2017 European Tour including their headline gig at The Roundhouse.

Balouzian formed the creative studio Appraiser in 2015 with Ryan Hope and began scoring films and commercials. He composed on campaigns for Prada, Calvin Klein, and Gucci. On a commercial Jacob Lusk attended a casting as a chior director and after the job they continued working together and formed Gabriels.

Their first song as a band was a job for Prada commercial Appraiser were directing and scoring. The song was called 'Loyalty' and released as a single on R and S Records in 2018.

The band then self released their debut EP 'Love and Hate In a Different Time' in June 2021 to great acclaim with Elton John calling it 'One of the most seminal records I have heard in the last ten years.'

In his WIRED interview in Feb 2022 David Byrne was asked hwo is inspiring him at the moment and he said 'a band out of the west coast called Gabriels'.

Gabriels released their debut album Angels and Queens on July 7th, 2023. The album was critically acclaimed receiving 5 stars from The Guardian, NME and making BBC Radio 6 album of the year list. Hip Hop producer Sounwave was also a featured producer on this album.

Composing

In 2020 Balouzian was the composer on two critically acclaimed documentaries. The first was Some Kind Of Heaven directed by Lance Oppenheim and produced by Darren Aronofsky through Protozoa Pictures. Distribution was by Magnolia Pictures. The directorial debut feature from Oppenheim is a 2020 American documentary film about The Villages, Florida, the world's largest retirement community. It premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was the sole documentary to play in the NEXT section, a category known for "pure, bold works distinguished by innovative, forward-thinking approach[es] to storytelling" It was released in theaters and on-demand in the United States on January 15, 2021, by Magnolia Pictures.

Balouzian also scored the music for Feels Good Man along with Ryan Hope which also played at the Sundance 2020 Film Festival. Marking the directorial debut of Arthur Jones, the film stars artist Matt Furie, the creator of Pepe. The film follows Furie as he struggles to reclaim control of Pepe from members of the alt-right who have co-opted the image for their own purposes. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and won a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker.

In his review of the Feels Good Man for Variety Nick Schager wrote 'Driven by Ari Balouzian and Ryan Hope's alternately playful, anxious and mournful score, "Feels Good Man" offers an inside peek at the internet's growing ability to affect and shape mordern society, which often makers the film a nightmare about extremism and technology.'

In 2024 Balouzian completed the score of his first TV series Ren Faire produced by HBO and Elara Pictures, Directed by Lance Oppenheim and Produced by Benny and Josh Safdie among others, "Ren Faire" depicts and embodies a Möbius strip of truth and grandiosity. The New York Times described RenFaire as an engrossing documentary that is 'Succession with Kettle Corn'.

In 2024 Balousian also completed the score for Spermworld - an American Documentary film directed by Lance Oppenheim that premiered on Hulu and FX in the United States on March 29,2024. Spermworld follows the stories of three sperm donors and their Recipients.