Maïlys Maronne – Phonem

A phoneme is the smallest unit of a language that distinguishes meaning and is defined not by sound but by its function. Applied to music, each individual tone is not just a note, but a single, resounding sound. French pianist, keyboardist, synthesiser player and composer Maïlys Maronne probably had this definition in mind when she named her quintet Phonem, which she founded in 2018. Every single note changes simply because it is coloured differently or treated in a dynamically variable way. This gives Maronne a musical system that provides both a fixed framework and an open concept. The current programme is called “Geometriks”. She places geographical lead sheets on the musicians’ desks, allowing them to handle and shape the music flexibly – sometimes as a logical continuation of the graphic figure on paper, then again as a free interpretation transformed into sound.