Name: Marie Tjong-Ayong
Nationality: German
Occupation: Trumpet player, composer, producer, improviser
Current release: Marie Tjong-Ayong's Green Lashes EP is out via Sound of Berlin.
Recommendations: Island, a novel by Aldous Huxley and the artwork Der Garten der Lüste (The Garden of Earthly Delights) by Hieronymous Bosch. No music here, because I couldn't commit to only a single piece ...

If you enjoyed this interview with Marie Tjong-Ayong and would like to hear more of her music, visit her on Soundcloud.

When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

Ever since I can remember I have been surrounded by music. As a child and granddaughter of musicians, some record was always playing (from John Coltrane to Earth, Wind and Fire). I started to learn the violin at the age of 3 and changed to the trumpet at 12 to study it after graduating from high school.

During the pandemic, all possibilities for playing live broke away, new ways opened up. Since I had been listening to techno and house for a long time and started to collect vinyl, I also started to deal with the production of this music. Abelton was pulled onto the computer and the first drum machines and synthesizers were procured.
 
I think what first attracted me to music was dancing. My mother danced every day in the living room while she was ironing or getting ready. And so did my siblings and me. I loved it and love it still, it turned off and still turns off my head. Into my body.

Music connected me to the people around me early on and I felt music like beautiful other worlds. Just like movies but auditory. So I could fade away.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

I mainly perceive abstract worlds, nature scenarios, or interpersonal encounters. It always depends a bit on whether I listen to instrumental music or music with voices or which genre I listen to. And in which state of mind I listen.

But I would say that when I produce electronic music, these abstract worlds accompany me because I think I feel very free. Because they are "my worlds" and I don't have to follow any rules. (laughs)

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

My interest in music has always been very strong. My way of making music has often already changed and I see it as a very big gain to finally know that it doesn't matter if I play the trumpet, produce, sing, DJ or "just" listen to music. All of this even cross-fertilizes each other, my musical spectrum expands immensely when I stop putting myself under pressure to be someone I right now think is cool!

I fought for a long time to feel like a jazz trumpet player and to love and practice it every day. It wasn't my reality and doubts started to arise if it was even the right thing to do. When I started digging and then producing techno and other electronic genres, it ignited this flame that I thought was gone. Understanding that I can be a musician and do whatever I want, make my music, whatever it is, took the pressure off.

My personal voice is always there, I just have to create the circumstances for myself to perceive it. And this is the attitude I want to practice. What happens with my music afterwards - if a few people are happy about it, I'm happy. About something like a breakthrough, I do care, but only maybe, later. My attitude towards music and myself is much more important to me.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

Just as I am fluid as a person, I am fluid when it comes to what I listen to and how I make music.

At least I don't like to fix myself in any way as far as my identity is concerned and especially not as far as my music is concerned.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

For me, there are actually no fixed key ideas. Music is a constant search. But I hope to touch listeners deeply and take them on a journey.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

You search for your music on the basis of having explored different music, which instruments, which technique, which compositional techniques, which harmonies, how melodies, rhythms and lyrics were created based on which stories.

But all your logical as well as emotional understanding of other music is a part of you and your music. That happens automatically. I try to make decisions as freely as possible, even if I recognize certain similarities in my music with previously heard music.

It has always been a give and take. Boundaries are hard to draw. And maybe they don’t need to be drawn. It’s quite the same, timeless.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

For the first long years of my musical life it was the trumpet, and it is still always by my side. In addition, a few drum machines, a micro and turntables for DJing as well as often used for sampling.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

To be honest, every day is different. However, I try to just sit down for 20 minutes every morning and just sit. Moving once a day is just as important to me, doing yoga for example.

The rest of the day I'm busy making music or organizing it, whether it's playing the trumpet, DJing, producing, listening to music, going to a concert or rehearsing. Mails, bills, you know the drill.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

For example, on my debut EP as a producer Green Lashes the second track "Than Sadet":

I was alone in a small apartment in an incredibly beautiful national park on an incredibly beautiful island in Thailand. I remember a very specific feeling, I was very touched by this spot and felt very comfortable, just with myself. That was the start, that emotion, that attitude, that place. That's what I wanted to capture.

I started to look for rhythms and fill them with the right sounds, then soundscapes came. I wanted to tell this freedom by breaking free from typical structures, I wanted to tell a story, on a journey. I searched and found.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I've always played in bands and orchestras, which means creating a sound together, communicating, listening, responding when it feels right.

Especially when I play with jazz bands, you never know beforehand how a piece will be played and that's the lovely thing. You kind of search together for solutions to make the musical material sound good and everyone inspires everyone. It's very different from sitting alone in your home studio or somewhere and making music like that. You have all the musical decisions in your hands and you deal with your own attitude much more.

That's very exciting and beautiful for me, but also because it's just new. I need both, making music together with people and sometimes alone.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Music cannot be touched and yet music is waves that touch everything. Music connects in pain and joy, music is deeply human and has the power to heal a society and throw its people into feelings of connection and be present.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Music plays a role in almost every memory of my life, which is usually accompanied by strong emotions.

When I danced with my mother as a child, teenager and adult through the living room, my first heartbreak, separation of my parents, the first techno parties with my friends, concerts of my father. The list is long ...

Making or listening to music intensified these moments, allowed me connect with my emotions and to reflect. It feels like the feelings have been embedded through music, they have found a place and a form of expression.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

I think music, like science, is a lot about searching. And about structures.

However, music does not search for truths, or the truth is in the eye of the performer or composer as well as the listener. So there are very many truths, many more ways.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

In the best case, you have more options for action. It's not just these predefined steps to create the best cappuccino.

I rather try to find new "end results" again and again. However, I still believe that some people have the same dedication and mindfulness that I try to have when I make music.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I can't explain it. So much more happens than this process. But what exactly, that's where the magic lies. And that's the wonderful thing about it.