MANUEL PINHEIRO

sound design and composition

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about

Manuel Pinheiro is a sound designer, sound engineer, electronic composer and musician.

Manuel graduated in SOUND ARTS AND DESIGN at the London College of Communication, in London, where he was tutored by sound practitioners such as David Toop or Chris Watson. Before that, in Lisbon, he studied Music Production and Audio Techniques at RESTART and ETIC, Photography at ARCO and Jazz Studies at HOT CLUB.

Born into a very artistic family, he was always surrounded by music and arts as he grew up, developing a taste for instruments from various parts of the planet, while a the same time being fascinated with audio, sound recording and its manipulation.

While still in Portugal, in addition to being part of several musical projects and bands, he collaborated intensively with the artist Ricardo Jacinto in the creation of PARQUE, a project that includes the performance and construction of large-scale electro-acoustic instruments and that led him to explore the world of improvised and experimental music.

In London Manuel took a deep interest in electronic music and sound design. He started working as a Composer and Sound Designer in theatre, dance and performing arts. Highlights include collaborations with Young Vic Theatre, choreographer Robin Dingemans, writer Tarrel Alvin McCraney and director Bijan Sheibani with whom he worked as Sound Designer and Live Performer in the play “The Brothers Size”, play that got nominated for the 2007 and 2008 Olivier Awards and has toured extensively over the years and more recently in 2017, mainly in the UK. He was also part of the Unknown Devices-London Laptop Orchestra, directed by David Toop.

Back in Lisbon in 2010 he joined the Portuguese music scene, some highlights being his work as a Percussionist in Diabo Na Cruz and Benjamim as well as Sound Operator in You Can’t Win Charlie Brown and the group Mutrama (Salvador Sobral, Maria João, André Santos), among others. In 2019, he got together with André Nóvoa and created the duo Dead Robots, responsible for creating the records / games Death Robot Jungle and Putrescense Regnant, the latter in collaboration with the Swedish Mork Borg. In 2021 Manuel started sound designing and composing for collaborations with CGI company Recom Farmhouse, with whom he worked on videos for the brands Chanel and IBM.