Linda-Philomène (Philo) Tsoungui (born 1992 in Plauen) is a German drummer, percussionist, and music producer. She is known as the drummer for

The Mars Volta The Mars Volta is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 2001. The band's only constant members are Omar Rodríguez-López (guitar, producer, direction) and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (vocals, lyrics), whose partnership forms the core of the ban ...

, as well as several German acts, including singer Mine, rapper Fatoni, and rapper Chefket.

Life and career

Tsoungui was born in

Plauen Plauen (; ; ) is a town in Saxony, Germany with a population of around 65,000. It is Saxony's 5th most populated city after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the largest cit ...

to a Cameroonian father and a German opera singer mother. At the age of six, she moved to Hof, where she later attended the musically oriented Jean-Paul-Gymnasium high school. She initially received piano lessons before switching to drums, studying under Claudio Estay and Johannes Potzel. From 2011 to 2015, she studied classical percussion at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Peter Sadlo and Bastian Jütte. During her studies, she participated in various ensembles, including the Munich-Percussion-Ensemble, which led her to concert tours in Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Oman. In 2014, she performed in the ensemble for the production of

Bernd Alois Zimmermann Bernd Alois Zimmermann (20 March 1918 – 10 August 1970) was a German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera ''Die Soldaten'', which is regarded as one of the most important German operas of the 20th century, after those of Berg. Hi ...

's opera "

Die Soldaten ' (''The Soldiers'') is a four-act opera in German by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, based on the 1776 play by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. In a letter accompanying his newly printed play (23 July 1776, aged 24) that he sent to his best friend, the ...

" at the Bavarian State Opera under Kyrill Petrenko. She also collaborated with Martin Grubinger,

Kent Nagano Kent George Nagano (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been ''Generalmusikdirektor'' (GMD) of the Hamburg State Opera (until 2025). Early life and education Nagano was born in Berkeley, ...

, and

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

. She was a scholarship recipient of the Neue Franz Liszt Stiftung and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation LiveMusicNow. After earning her bachelor's degree, Tsoungui studied jazz drumming in Munich for two semesters before starting her master's in Popular Music with a focus on Performance Art at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg in 2016. There, she studied under Claus Heßler and Udo Dahmen. Her master's thesis was titled "Ich bin zu für Dich" – "How the Capitalization of Femininity Constitutes the Success of German Female Rappers." Tsoungui has played for numerous bands and artists, including Antonia Dering's SiEA, Tiger Tiger, Madanii, Evelinn Trouble, Donskoy, Elif, and Seba Kaapstad. She is currently the drummer for Mine, Fatoni, Chefket, Mal Élevé, Moli, and Lxandra. In August 2017, she toured China and Hong Kong with the Hong Kong-based producer and singer

Khalil Fong Khalil Fong Tai-Tung (; 14 July 1983 – 21 February 2025) was a Hong Kong singer-songwriter, musician and producer. Fong was notable for introducing a more sophisticated R&B and soul sound to the Chinese music market, drawing inspiration f ...

. For Mine, she recorded the album "Klebstoff," released in May 2019 by Caroline Records. This was followed by numerous television appearances, including on ZDF's "Aspekte" and SWR's "Pierre M. Krause Show." Since 2019, she has been the musical director for Fatoni, with whom she toured Germany in the fall of 2019. In addition to performing in live bands, she composes and produces her own music. In 2018 and 2019, Tsoungui musically accompanied the Pop Culture Prize ceremony at the

Tempodrom The Tempodrom (also referred to as Neues Tempodrom) is a multi-purpose event venue in Berlin. Founded by Irene Moessinger, it opened in 1980 next to the Berlin Wall on the west side of Potsdamer Platz, housed in a large circus tent. After sever ...

in Berlin with her compositions and solo performances. Since 2022, she has been touring as the drummer for

. During the 2024 Men's European Football Championship, Tsoungui will accompany the late-night show "Studio Pille-Palle," moderated by Fahri Yardım and

Jonas Hector Jonas Armin Hector (; born 27 May 1990) is a German former professional footballer. Hector played almost the entirety of his senior professional career for German club 1. FC Köln, making 347 appearances for the side across an eleven-year perio ...

on MagentaTV, with her drum solos.

Teaching

Tsoungui has taught for "Online Lessons TV" and was a jury member of the "Austrian Drummer Awards" in 2018. In September 2019, she gave her first clinic at the Dresden "Drum and Bass Festival" focusing on electronic production and drumming in a band context.

Selected discography

* Tiger Tiger: ''O Trust'' (2019) * Mine: ''Klebstoff'' (2019) *

: '' Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacío'' (2025)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsoungui, Linda-Philomene German women musicians The Mars Volta members Living people 1992 births Cameroonian musicians Cameroonian people of German descent German rock drummers