Roaring Abbys

If you go out around music bars and venues in Addis Ababa, you will enjoy a very characteristic scene, but if you want to get an idea of the different sounds from the country, you will get a very narrow view of it; in some places some Amhara or Gurage music may be found but... what about the rest?

Director. Quino Piñero is a sound engineer and film maker who started his nomadic life at an early age, always carrying his audio recorder and camera, hence has his work the personal signature of a sound journey, both on music albums and audiovisual pieces. Following his eclectic influences like African blues, punk or experimental music, he has recorded and produced albums for Alkibar Junior (Mali 2007), La URSS (Spain 2006) and Orchestra Elastique’s “A Fallible Girl OST” (London 2012) among many others. In 2008 Quino Piñero started working as a sound engineering lecturer at CCEB (Spanish Cultural Centre in Bata, Ecuatorial Guinea. AECID) and venue manager, working in studio with the young Hip Hop scene, as well as with legendary local musicians like Gabri B. In 2011 he put together hours of footage and audio recordings from his years of music production in Western Africa, resulting in his first documentary film Le Message du Issa ber (Khaira Arby, Male Toure, Tinariwen, ...) In 2012 he moved to Ethiopia, where he worked with artists like Mulatu Astatke or Samuel Yirga. Paralelly, he produced the documentary films Roaring Abyss (Womex15) and New Voices in an Old Flower, as well as collaborating as sound recordist and designer with film director Miguel Llansó on his latest movies Chigger Ale (Festival del Film de Locarno 2013) and Crumbs (International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015). Nowadays Quino Piñero is based in London working as a sound engineer, while developing new documentary projects through his audiovisual platform SolySombra Recordings.