The drummer, composer, and performer Linda- Philomène Tsoungui is also known as Philo. With an opera singer as a mother and a father who introduced her to bikutsi and Afro-Cuban genres such as son, montuno, and guaracha (popularly known as salsa), rhythm has always been present in Tsoungui’s life. She began her professional music career after earning her Bachelor’s degree in classical percussion, during which she encountered a Robert Glasper Experiment performance, reconnecting her with the rhythms of her childhood. Since then, she has increasingly focused on the drum kit, discovering a profound inner voice as a musician. Philo has worked with notable German artists such as Loredana, Megaloh, Fatoni, Mine, and Alli Neumann, and also collaborates and tours with a variety of artists, including Chefket, Mal Éléve, Elif, and Lxandra. By bringing drums to the forefront, Philo is able to seamlessly blend pop, jazz, hip hop, Afrobeat, and classical percussion. For Forgive Us Our Trespasses / Vergib uns unsere Schuld, Philo has created on metonymy//bloodline (2024), an audio visual installation that is performatively activated by the artist, using ancestral memory on her body as a percussion instrument.

Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Linda-Philomène Tsoungui and HKW, 2024

Work in the exhibition: on metonymy//bloodline (2024), video, sound. Courtesy of the artist