Percussionist, composer and visual artist. Manuel Antonio Mujica Pinilla, “Manongo”, was born in Lima, Peru in 1950. He studied in Vienna with Klaus Stein and joined the rock band The Mad’s, with whom he recorded four songs in the Rolling Stone’s studio in London. Back in Lima in 1973, he formed an ensamble with Susana Baca, played with the National Symphony Orchestra in an Enrique Pinilla production, performed also with Omar Aramayo and Corina Bartra and composed incidental music for Rafael Hastings videos. He founded “Solos” with Enrique Luna and “Nocturno” with Omar Aramayo and Arturo Ruiz del Pozo. With Douglas Tarnawiecki he recorded the album “Paisajes Sonoros” (Sound Landscapes) in 1984, focused on sound experimentation. That year, he also founded the “Manongo Mujica Quartet” which would later become “Perujazz“, the first band blending Peruvian rhythms with jazz. Parallel to his work with Perujazz, Manongo recorded several albums: Mundos (1989), Zona Neblina (1990), Canto a Bernardo (1992), Tribal (1996), El Sonido de los Dioses (2004) and Cambio de Piel (2012). In 2011 he released his first audiovisual work, the experimental film “Autorretrato Sonoro” (Sound Self-Portrait), a tribute to the Peruvian desert. His most recent works include: “Huaca Sonora” (2015), which compiles seven albums and two videos, recorded between 1991 and 2014 as a “search for the sacred”. “Maya Sonora” (2016), has the drummer as the main character and invites us to open a sound dimension towards “the inaudible”. In 2018 Manongo presented “Gitanería”, an audiovisual show that integrates photography with percussion instruments and a cello. In 2019 Manongo’s fascination with the desert of Paracas encouraged him to held his first exhibition as painter together with photographer Pauline Barberi which also led him to publish the book “Huacas del Viento”. He has recently released “Paracas Ritual” (2020), double LP also inspired in the desert and the bay of Paracas with Norwegian drummer Terje Evensen and “Del Cuarto Rojo” (2022), a tribute to his departed friend Rafael Hastings.
Manongo has musicalized numerous films and television programs. His constant search of sounds, from tribal to electronics, has even led him to compose music from silence, and that is why he is considered one of the most representative avant-garde Peruvian artists.
