motherland by Marie Tjong Ayong
Berlin-based artist Marie Tjong Ayong delivers a captivating four-tracker with her "motherland" EP, which unfolds like a sonic ritual—earthy, dubby, and steeped in natural rhythm. Navigating fluidly between dub techno, grey area, downtempo, and breakbeat, the EP carves out its own genre-blurring identity. The sound is rooted in a warm, organic atmosphere, driven by percussive detail and an unmistakably natural flow.
You can sense Marie’s background as a trained jazz trumpeter in the subtle musical intelligence that underlies each movement. From the driving, rhythm-heavy opener "freshelle" to the introspective, bass-laden "tiger balm", the EP continuously shifts form and energy. "desert of boredom" maintains the dub-soaked aesthetic while injecting a more forceful groove, before "rodeo of the bugs" rounds things off with deep, muted dub techno and refined percussive finesse.
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About Marie Tjong Ayong
Marie Tjong Ayong is a Berlin-based producer, vinyl-DJ, and trumpeter.
Her sound weaves percussive lushness, warm harmonies, and genre-defying grooves into immersive, abstract sonic spaces. Airy, dreamy, and deeply groovy, her music invites listeners into a world shaped by texture and emotional depth, often reconnecting with her roots through layered sound design.
Born in 1994 to a jazz musician and a music teacher, Marie picked up the trumpet at the age of 12. From 2014 to 2019, she studied jazz trumpet at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.
Her versatility and unique voice have since made her collaborator in a wide range of projects—from modern jazz ensembles like Leon Plecity’s Extraordinary Machine to Afrobeat and hip-hop collectives such as HYPNAGOGIA. She is also a member of the Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Ehrenfeld, the house band of ZDF Magazin Royale with Jan Böhmermann.
Marie Tjong Ayong’s work blurs boundaries—not only between genres, but between the tangible and the imagined.
https://www.instagram.com/marietjongayong/
https://soundcloud.com/user-577926608
https://marietjongayong.bandcamp.com/album/trio
https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/7L6jH0Y3XGSbH08pKMfqBX?si=DMACueCqRz2ekrT1PB3AWQ
Tracklist
| 1. | freshelle | 5:54 |
| 2. | tiger balm | |
| 3. | desert of boredom | |
| 4. | rodeo of the bugs | |
Credits
Written and produced by Marie Tjong Ayong
Mastered by Klangstellwerk (Niklas Bühler)
Artwork by Lindsey Wang (Polygonia)
License
All rights reserved.
𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐱 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬
Independent record label, with emphasis on organic timbres and sound design focused electronic music.
Founded by Polygonia.