Alok - Biography and discography, all albums and songs | Pages: 22

Alok is a Brazilian DJ, music producer, and composer, and one of the best-known representatives of the Latin American electronic music scene. The musician’s full name is Alok Achkar Peres Petrillo. He was born on August 26, 1991, in Goiânia, the administrative center of the Brazilian state of Goiás.

Alok’s international career grew out of the Brazilian psychedelic trance scene, but his main commercial direction became Brazilian bass, a form of house music characterized by deep basslines, restrained arrangements, and noticeable influences from tech house and bass house. The producer later expanded this sound through dance-pop, afro house, melodic house, hyper-techno, and collaborations with artists from pop music, hip-hop, and Brazil’s traditional culture.

Alok’s main international hit was Hear Me Now, recorded with Bruno Martini and Zeeba. However, the artist’s significance for Brazilian music is not limited to a single successful single. He founded the UP Club Records and CONTROVERSIA labels, became a regular performer at the world’s largest festivals, released an album with representatives of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples, and placed third in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2025, the highest position of his career.

Childhood and Family

Alok grew up in a family directly connected to electronic music. His father is Juarez Achkar Petrillo, known by the stage name Swarup, while his mother is Adriana Peres Franco, who performs as Ekanta. Both were members of Brazil’s early psytrance scene and were among the founders of the Universo Paralello festival, first held in the early 2000s.

Alok has a twin brother, Bhaskar Petrillo, who also became a DJ and music producer. The brothers’ childhood was surrounded by studio equipment, musical instruments, rehearsals, and festival trips. They learned to play guitar and keyboards, studied mixing, and observed how their parents built performances and organized events.

The name Alok has Sanskrit origins and can be translated as “light” or “radiance.” His parents chose it after traveling to India and becoming acquainted with Osho’s spiritual practices. In this case, Alok is the musician’s real name rather than a stage name created later.

Logica and First Performances

At around the age of ten, Alok and Bhaskar began learning DJing, and by twelve they were already performing professionally. Their first joint project was Logica, which focused on psychedelic trance. The brothers performed at events connected with Brazil’s trance scene, including Universo Paralello, and released their own material.

This early period differed significantly from the music that later brought Alok into international charts. Logica’s compositions were built around high tempos, psychedelic synthesizer parts, and extended club arrangements. Working as a duo gave him practical experience in production, live performance, and mixing long before the beginning of his solo career.

At eighteen, Alok decided to develop independently. He and his brother lived in London for a period while attempting to enter the European club scene. The young musicians presented their recordings to labels and clubs but were unable to establish themselves in the British industry. After returning to Brazil, Alok fully focused on his solo project.

Transition to House Music

After psytrance, Alok began searching for a more concise sound. He was attracted to house music with low-pitched vocals, short melodic phrases, and deep bass. In the early 2010s, this direction began developing in Brazil as an alternative both to festival EDM and traditional deep house.

One of his first notable solo works was We Are Underground, released in 2013. The composition gained wide circulation on SoundCloud and within the Brazilian club scene. It was not an international pop hit, but it helped Alok build a new audience and marked his transition from psychedelic trance to house.

The term Brazilian bass gradually became associated with Alok and several other Brazilian producers. The sound is characterized by a dense low-frequency foundation, minimalist grooves, vocal samples, and a darker atmosphere than commercial tropical house or future house. Alok himself regarded Brazilian bass not as a strictly limited genre but as the result of the development of a local scene.

In 2014 and 2015, the musician received recognition from Brazil’s specialist music press, and in 2015 he entered the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs for the first time at number 44. By then, he was already performing outside Brazil and developing his own UP Club Records label.

Hear Me Now

The international breakthrough came in 2016 with the release of Hear Me Now, created with producer Bruno Martini and singer Zeeba.

Unlike Alok’s darker club recordings, the composition received a complete song structure. It combined acoustic guitar, calm vocals, a soft house rhythm, and a deep bass drop. This structure allowed the track to work simultaneously on radio, streaming platforms, and in DJ sets.

Hear Me Now entered the charts in several European countries and became the first track by a Brazilian artist to surpass 100 million streams on Spotify. On the US Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, the song reached number 20.

The success of the single brought Brazilian bass beyond South America. After Hear Me Now, Alok gained the opportunity to perform regularly at major European and North American festivals, while his musical model became a reference point for a new generation of Brazilian producers.

Fuego, Big Jet Plane, and Ocean

Following Hear Me Now, Alok released a series of compositions that consolidated his international success.

Together with his brother Bhaskar, he recorded Fuego. The track represented the more club-oriented side of Brazilian bass: a short vocal fragment, a heavy bassline, and a restrained drop designed for festival and club performances.

In 2017, he released Big Jet Plane with French producer Mathieu Koss, an electronic version of the song by Australian duo Angus & Julia Stone. The composition continued his melodic pop-house direction and received widespread European radio airplay.

The single Ocean, featuring vocals by Zeeba, was released in 2018. The song was connected to the story of a girl suffering from a serious illness and received a charitable continuation in the form of a short film. Musically, Ocean showed a calmer and more emotional side of Alok, almost entirely abandoning the aggressive festival drop.

Other notable works from this period include Never Let Me Go, Love Is a Temple, Baianá, Favela with Ina Wroldsen, Bella Ciao with Bhaskar and Jetlag Music, and Innocent with Yves V and Gavin James.

Remixes and International Collaborations

Alok gradually began working not only on his own singles but also on official remixes for major artists.

In 2017, he reworked Mick Jagger’s Gotta Get a Grip. Later, he produced remixes of Piece of Your Heart by MEDUZA, Physical by Dua Lipa, Living in a Ghost Town by The Rolling Stones, and other international releases.

The remix of Piece of Your Heart became one of Alok’s most recognizable club works. It retained the vocal foundation of the original but strengthened the bass and adapted the composition to the heavier sound associated with Brazilian bass.

In the late 2010s and early 2020s, Alok collaborated with Jason Derulo, Tove Lo, John Legend, Zara Larsson, Ellie Goulding, The Vamps, Steve Aoki, Timmy Trumpet, Armin van Buuren, Alan Walker, KSHMR, and other artists.

Key releases from this period include:

• All the Lies with The Vamps and Felix Jaehn;
• On & On with Dynoro;
• Don’t Cry for Me with Martin Jensen and Jason Derulo;
• Let Me Go with KSHMR and MKLA;
• Don’t Say Goodbye with Ilkay Sencan and Tove Lo;
• Love Again with VIZE and Alida;
• It Don’t Matter with Sofi Tukker and INNA;
• In My Mind with John Legend;
• Wherever You Go with John Martin;
• Headlights with Alan Walker and KIDDO.

These recordings expanded Alok’s style from Brazilian bass into dance-pop, slap house, future house, and melodic festival electronic music.

Deep Down and the Pop Period

In 2022, Alok released Deep Down with Ella Eyre, Kenny Dope, and Never Dull. The composition uses the vocal and melodic foundation of the classic house track The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind) by The Bucketheads.

Deep Down topped Billboard’s US dance radio chart for several weeks and became one of Alok’s biggest international releases after Hear Me Now.

The same period included All by Myself with Sigala and Ellie Goulding, based on an interpolation of Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode, as well as Car Keys (Ayla) with Ava Max, Jungle with The Chainsmokers and Mae Stephens, Deep in Your Love with Bebe Rexha, and Under the Sun with Ella Henderson.

Alok increasingly used familiar melodic or vocal themes while retaining his characteristic bass-driven delivery. At the same time, he continued releasing more club-oriented tracks, so his discography developed in several directions at once: radio-oriented dance-pop, festival electronic music, and material designed for late-night sets.

CONTROVERSIA

In 2019, Alok launched the CONTROVERSIA label in partnership with Spinnin’ Records.

The first official release was The Wall, recorded with Sevenn. The track used a fragment of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, and the new version received approval from Roger Waters.

CONTROVERSIA was created as a platform for Brazilian bass, club house, and music containing ethnic elements. The label released both Alok’s own work and recordings by new producers from Brazil and other countries.

Its catalog has featured Bhaskar, Dubdogz, KVSH, Rooftime, Sevenn, ÜHÜ, Kohen, and other artists.

The label supplemented the previously created UP Club Records and allowed Alok to control the release of club material without focusing exclusively on the demands of pop radio.

Free Fire

In 2019, Alok became a playable character in the mobile game Garena Free Fire. His character received the Drop the Beat ability, which restores team members’ health and increases movement speed.

The collaboration went beyond a standard advertising campaign. Special compositions were released for the game, including Vale Vale and Reunion, recorded with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, KSHMR, and Zafrir.

Alok’s income from the game character was directed toward social projects in Brazil, India, and African countries. According to DJ Mag, his character became one of the most popular figures in Free Fire.

Festivals and Large-Scale Concerts

Alok has performed at Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival, Coachella, Rock in Rio, Lollapalooza, EDC, Untold, Ushuaïa Ibiza, and other major venues.

Concerts in Brazil occupy a special place in his career. He has performed on the main stage of Rock in Rio, held large free shows in Fortaleza, and presented his own concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

In August 2023, a pyramid-shaped stage with a 360-degree view was installed on Copacabana. The program included electronic music, a light show, drones, and performances by guest artists. The concert demonstrated Alok’s scale within Brazil, where he had long moved beyond a specialized club audience.

In 2024, he continued performing at Tomorrowland in Belgium and Brazil, Lollapalooza Chicago, Untold, Ushuaïa Ibiza, and other international festivals.

The Future Is Ancestral

One of Alok’s most important works was the album The Future Is Ancestral, released in April 2024.

More than fifty musicians and representatives of eight Indigenous communities from Brazil participated in the recording. The album consists of nine compositions in which electronic production is combined with traditional singing, percussion, and Indigenous languages.

The project took shape over several years. Its conceptual foundation came from Alok’s visit to Indigenous settlements in 2016. The musician said that the experience made him consider for the first time the difference between a commercial song and music that serves a cultural, spiritual, or healing function.

During the project, an additional 113 traditional songs were recorded but not included on the album. The archive was created to preserve musical memory and pass the material on to future generations. Revenue from the album was directed to the communities that participated in the project.

The composition Pedju Kunumigwe, recorded with Guarani Nhandewa, and the track Drum Machine with DJ Pickle received Latin Grammy 2024 nominations in the Best Latin Electronic Music Performance category. Alok therefore became a two-time Latin Grammy nominee but did not receive the award that year.

Keep Art Human and Something Else

In the mid-2020s, Alok began exploring the relationship between people, technology, and artificial intelligence more actively. During a performance at Coachella, he introduced the Keep Art Human initiative, dedicated to preserving human authorship and the emotional nature of creativity during the development of generative technologies.

In 2025, the musician also launched the experimental direction SOMETHING ELSE. The project allowed him to move away from Alok’s commercial formula and turn toward deeper, more organic, and club-oriented material.

One of the first works was Miçanga, recorded with BaianaSystem and Kawz. In May 2026, the composition I Wonder If You Know was released under the SOMETHING ELSE name and used a vocal fragment by British songwriter Labi Siffre.

The 2025–2026 Period

In 2025, Alok released a number of international collaborations. They included Euphoria with Armin van Buuren, Norma Jean Martine, and LAWRENT, Last Night I Dreamt I Fell in Love with Kylie Minogue, To the Moon with ILLENIUM, and club-oriented works with ARTBAT, Alan Fitzpatrick, and other producers.

In the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2025, he moved from fourth to third place, entering the top three for the first time. DJ Mag named him the highest-ranked Latin American representative in the poll.

In June 2026, the United Nations Environment Programme appointed Alok as a global Goodwill Ambassador. The World Environment Day campaign used the composition Deep Down, while the artist’s work was connected to environmental protection, climate initiatives, and support for Indigenous peoples.

On June 5, 2026, his Rave The World live concept premiered at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. The project refers to the early principles of rave culture — unity, peace, love, and mutual respect — while also incorporating environmental and social themes.

DJ Mag Top 100 DJs

Alok entered the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs for the first time in 2015 at number 44. His positions then rose consistently:

• 2015 — number 44;
• 2017 — number 19;
• 2018 — number 13;
• 2020 — number 5;
• 2021 — number 4;
• 2022 — number 4;
• 2023 — number 4;
• 2024 — number 4;
• 2025 — number 3.

Third place became the highest result of his career and the strongest position among Latin American artists in the 2025 vote.

Musical Style

The foundation of Alok’s early career was psychedelic trance. After beginning his solo project, he moved into house and became one of the artists associated with the international spread of Brazilian bass.

The classic version of his sound uses:

• a deep and concise bassline;
• minimalist drums;
• low-pitched or processed vocals;
• restrained synthesizer melodies;
• elements of tech house and bass house;
• a compact structure suitable for radio and club sets.

After Hear Me Now, his music included more acoustic instruments, vocal choruses, and dance-pop. In other works, Alok turned to slap house, afro house, hyper-techno, melodic house, psytrance, and traditional Brazilian music.

His festival sets are not limited to a single genre. Depending on the venue, he combines his own hits, Brazilian bass, contemporary pop remixes, heavier techno compositions, and Brazilian funk.

Alok Institute

The Alok Institute was officially founded in 2020. The organization supports projects in education, food security, healthcare, environmental protection, digital accessibility, and Indigenous rights.

The institute works across Brazil and also participates in partnership initiatives in Africa and India. Its areas of activity include forest restoration, access to clean drinking water, support for women and children, preservation of traditional culture, and the development of educational programs.

By 2026, Alok had directed around 11 million dollars through the institute and related partnerships toward social, cultural, and environmental projects. The organization’s initiatives helped restore approximately three million square meters of forest and plant hundreds of thousands of trees.

In 2025, Alok was included in the TIME100 Climate list, and in 2026 his environmental work continued through his status as a UNEP Goodwill Ambassador.

Personal Life

In 2019, Alok married Brazilian doctor and social activist Romana Novais. The couple have two children, a son named Ravi and a daughter named Raika.

The family regularly accompanies the musician on part of his tours, although the couple’s main public activities are connected to social and charitable projects. Alok has described the birth of his children as one of the events that changed his attitude toward his career, responsibility, and the future.

Selected Discography

Main Singles

• We Are Underground — 2013;
• Hear Me Now — with Bruno Martini and Zeeba, 2016;
• Fuego — with Bhaskar, 2017;
• Big Jet Plane — with Mathieu Koss, 2017;
• Ocean — with Zeeba, 2018;
• Baianá — 2018;
• Favela — with Ina Wroldsen, 2018;
• All the Lies — with The Vamps and Felix Jaehn, 2019;
• The Wall — with Sevenn, 2019;
• On & On — with Dynoro, 2019;
• Don’t Cry for Me — with Martin Jensen and Jason Derulo, 2020;
• Don’t Say Goodbye — with Ilkay Sencan and Tove Lo, 2020;
• Love Again — with VIZE and Alida, 2021;
• In My Mind — with John Legend, 2021;
• Wherever You Go — with John Martin, 2021;
• Deep Down — with Ella Eyre, Kenny Dope, and Never Dull, 2022;
• All by Myself — with Sigala and Ellie Goulding, 2022;
• Car Keys (Ayla) — with Ava Max, 2023;
• Jungle — with The Chainsmokers and Mae Stephens, 2023;
• Deep in Your Love — with Bebe Rexha, 2024;
• Under the Sun — with Ella Henderson, 2024;
• Looking for Love — with Anitta, 2024;
• Euphoria — with Armin van Buuren, Norma Jean Martine, and LAWRENT, 2025;
• Last Night I Dreamt I Fell in Love — with Kylie Minogue, 2025;
• To the Moon — with ILLENIUM, 2025;
• I Wonder If You Know — as SOMETHING ELSE, 2026.

Albums and Major Releases

• Alok Presents Brazilian Bass Part 1 — 2017;
• Deeper — 2022;
• The Future Is Ancestral — 2024.

Significance

Alok began his career within a community far removed from the global pop industry. His parents’ psytrance parties, the Logica project, and his first independent recordings shaped a producer with a strong understanding of how a dancefloor works. International success came later, when he combined the deep bass of Brazil’s club scene with an accessible song structure.

Hear Me Now became the main turning point, but his subsequent career proved much broader than a single hit. Alok established Brazilian bass on the international scene, built his own label system, began working with pop artists, and maintained a connection to Brazil’s musical culture.

The album The Future Is Ancestral marked a more substantial stage in his work. Electronic music became a means of preserving the languages, songs, and stories of Indigenous peoples. The SOMETHING ELSE and Rave The World projects continued his movement away from a predictable commercial formula.

Alok occupies a distinctive place in contemporary electronic music: he remains a major festival artist while using the scale of his success to develop the Brazilian scene, cultural projects, and environmental initiatives.