Découvrir Jako Maron
An electronic music artist whose sound is deeply rooted in Maloya, the traditional Creole rhythmic and spiritual music of Réunion. He intertwines ancestral percussion and melody with analog synths, drum machines, and modular synthesis.
Jako Maron (b. 1968, Saint-Denis, Réunion) is a pioneering electronic music artist whose work channels the ancestral rhythms of Maloya through a singularly contemporary lens. Melding traditional percussion and the bobre with modular synthesis, analog drum machines, and immersive textures, his music transcends genre.
After debuting on Nyege Nyege Tapes with The Electro Maloya Experiments of Jako Maron in 2018, he returned in February 2025 with Mahavélouz, a hypnotic, techno-tinged exploration of Maloya’s melodic roots—praised in The Guardian as “a thumping techno odyssey centred on the… bobre instrument.” Bandcamp echoes this acclaim, describing the album as “a singular treasure… startlingly novel as it is viscerally familiar.”
A compelling live performer, Jako Maron played at Roskilde Festival 2025 this summer and has been selected for a showcase at WOMEX 2025.
Beyond his solo output, he composes for theater and visual arts—most notably contributing to the 2019 Venice Biennale’s German Pavilion—and leads the live-electronic Maloya ensemble Kabar Jako, whose recent single Béloubo dann somin further expands his creative horizons.
Key Releases & Projects:
The Electro Maloya Experiments of Jako Maron 2018
Released on Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Tapes as a limited-edition tape and digital format. It presents an innovative electronic translation of Maloya’s pulse and texture.
Mahavélouz February 2025
A full-length album (Nyege Nyege Tapes), exploring the bobre (a melodic traditional instrument with a calabash-like structure). This project uses the bobre both as an ancestral voice and rhythmic instrument, overlayed with TR-series drum sounds to fuel hypnotic, dancefloor-ready Maloya revisited.
Past work ...
Includes Blaké, somin la nwit (Sakifo Production, 2020) and Saint extension (Bipole, 2010)