Presenter Bio:

KETUT RIWIYANA known as Riwin, was born on December 6, 1956, in Denpasar, Bali. As he was growing up he was introduced to Latin music via cassettes his father brought home from study sojourns in the United States. Riwin learnt to play guitar from a London hippy he met on the beach. The Londoner was on his was to Spain to study Flamenco and taught Riwin all he knew at that stage of his own musical development. As a teenager, Riwin played in bands with his two brothers. Then, in 1976, while studying biology at university, Riwin joined one of Indonesia’s most famous groups at that time, the Bandung-based Pahama. While he never did finish the biology course, from the late 1970s  Riwin  performed  in a diverse  range  of  music styles, including jazz and Blue Grass, with national and international musicians at one of Bali’s early live music venues, Kayu Api. He formed Tropical Transit on August 5, 1990, and named the group for its tropical environs and the transitory people who made up its audience. Today, when he is not making music with the band, Riwin mixes electronic music at his home studio. He is also a spiritual healer and for the past two years with Tropical Transit he has presided as a Pemangku (priest) for the tirta sprinkling ceremony that is part of Kidung Wirama Totaka. An enigmatic character, on the one hand Riwin provides spiritual support to the group members and on the other can bewitch his audience, especially women.