A list of recent events:
2008:
F.R.I.C.S. at Associação Espontânea, Vila Real, June 21.
On the day after the Pontevedra show, F.R.I.C.S. travelled back to Portugal to Vila Real, for the second-to-last stop of their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals. A fortuitious and inspiring combination of powerful wine, sweltering heat, mental channeling and astral conjunctions lead to one of the tour's strongest concerts, beginning with nearly 10 minutes of a maraca-lead voodoo attack, and progressing into deep psychedelic funkscapes. The arrival of the police prompted an encore in the form of a two-second Napalm Death cover version. 17 stops on the tour out of 18, and the end is near, as this devastating concert proved!
More F.R.I.C.S. here.
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F.R.I.C.S. in the old town of Pontevedra, June 20.
After their nymph-powered triumph in Ourense last September, F.R.I.C.S. returned to the magical lands of Galiza in northwestern Spain for another street gig, this time in a celebration of the rehabilitation of the old town of Pontevedra. A long, exhausting night reached its peak at dawn, in a small tavern where the middle-aged owners picked up F.R.I.C.S.'s portable percussions and joined the flow.
More F.R.I.C.S. here.
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Mental Liberation Ensemble at Casa Viva, Porto, June 15.
Spurred by the cataclismic, astronomic and seismic event of legendary nomad musician and Midwestern shaman Scott Nydegger's return to Porto, the elusive Mental Liberation Ensemble reconvened for the second time in their four-year history, to throw offerings of blossoming virginal soundforms into the gaping volcano of the Cosmic Ear.
Mental Liberation Ensemble were:
Jonathan hhy Cohen - shenai, melodica, shakers, euphonium; Filipe de Banshee Mendes - mutant synth, shakers, chime; Mats Gustavo - drums, tuned metal; Álvaro Jourgensen - trumpet, flugel horn, conch, percussion; Henrique Mitslaff - electric double bass; André Jolivet - electronics, percussion; João Zorn - tuned plastic, tuned metal; Scott The Comet Nigger - voices.
Stay tuned for a video of the concert coming up soon!
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F.R.I.C.S.- Mobile at Festival Serralves em Festa, Porto, June 7.
The opening morning of Porto's celebrated festival Serralves em Festa presented a vital double astrological conjunction, 316 years after the earthquake that destroyed Port Royal, Jamaica, the world's pirate capital, and 50 years after the glorious day that brought The Artist Known As Prince into our world. F.R.I.C.S., at the festival's invitation, performed a procession on wheels that sought to harness energy from both of the events and to redirect it through the use of specially-made sun-tuning hats. All in all, a pleasant Saturday morning, with an open bus, a P.A. system and a pirate flag adding to the mood.
More F.R.I.C.S. on Myspace; click here. More about Serralves em Festa here.
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Mécanosphère at Festival Ó da Guarda, June 6.
Mécanosphère took their itenerant séance to the heights of Guarda, on Portugal's highest mountain range, for a concert included in the long-running Ó da Guarda festival. Mécanosphère's brutalist meta-funk-dub was complemented by verbal cut-ups from The Great Book of Saint Cyprian, an ancient portuguese, spanish and arabic book of spells and exorcisms, and by a screening of Kenneth Anger's classic film, "Lucifer Rising".
More Mécanosphère on Myspace. More on The Great Book of Saint Cyprian here. More on Kenneth Anger's "Lucifer Rising" here.
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F.R.I.C.S. at Nasoni, Viana do Castelo, May 31.
F.R.I.C.S began the "V" section (the final one!) of their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals with a concert in Viana's beautiful venue, Nasoni. In fact, there were two concerts: one on May 31, before midnight, as part of the tour, and another one after midnight, therefore already on June 1, which celebrated the International Children's day, and was especially dedicated to Maria, daughter of F.R.I.C.S.'s Sr. Martins and the first member of the next F.R.I.C.S. generation.
more F.R.I.C.S. on Myspace. More pictures from F.R.I.C.S. on Flickr.
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Faca Monstro Boom 'n' Bass Party, JUP, Porto, May 30.
Faca Monstro, the newly formed alliance of Porto-based twisted beatmakers, brought mayhem to the dancefloor at JUP with a three-pronged attack. First up, Ex-Pawn blasted some high-energy Jedi power with his majestic tracks; then, the Soopa/Marvellous Tone trio Çuta Kebab & Party spread joy and madness with their progressive mid-eastern breaks; to round it all off, DJPedro played a four-hour set of high-energy boom sound. The smell of sweat lasted well into the morning. Stay tuned as the Faca Monstro phenomenon grows and grows!
More Faca Monstro at Myspace.
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F.R.I.C.S. marching on at Mercado do Bolhão, Porto, May 10.
As the struggle against the transformation of Porto's Bolhão market into a privately-run, sophisticated crypto-shopping-mall continued, F.R.I.C.S. were once again invited to provide the soundtrack for a gathering and protest outside the market, which they did with pleasure and pride.
hhy Scumclash at Massive Bass Party, JUP, Porto, April 26.
hhy gave a test run to the new P.A. at the headquarters of JUP, Porto's university newspaper in the first installment of Massive Bass, a proposed series of beat-oriented nights. hhy's performance was a fusion of beats, psych-dub echoes and melodica riffs that had the audience humming in appreciation. Also appearing were our friends Anta-Mobile, from Marvellous Tone.
more hhy on Myspace. More pictures from this show on Flickr.
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Sitting Bulldozer at STFU Festival, Fábrica de Som, Porto, April 24.
Sitting Bulldozer reinstated their activity with an appearance at STFU, a festival for electronic music in Porto. Now expanded to a trio, the band offered a meditation on the power of electronic frequencies and low-volume sonic pulses as a form of psychogeographical mapping of the mental prairy. Stay tuned for more appearances by Sitting Bulldozer!
More Sitting Bulldozer on Myspace; click here.
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Srosh at CENTA, Vila Velha de Ródão, April 16-19.
Srosh took part in CENTA, a three day artists' residency in rural Portugal, during which the trio of Jonathan hhy, Henrique Gameboy and Gustavo River Guts perfected their soundscape strategies, recording old creaking mechanisms, sheep, assorted objects and a rain-powered gamelan, and manipulating these into expansive sound textures. The residency was rounded off by a performance in which Srosh mapped out the resonances in an olive oil cellar.
More pictures from the residency on Flickr.
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F.R.I.C.S. at Kylakankra, Setúbal, April 18.
In another example of every-day strangeness, F.R.I.C.S. finished off the "S" section of their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals by playing a benefit concert for a dog, specifically for Lotibloti, a female dog that lives in Kylakankra, a squat in Setúbal. Stay tuned for news as the tour reaches its final three dates, a cataclismic prospect with unforeseeable consequences!
more F.R.I.C.S. on Myspace. More pictures from F.R.I.C.S. on Flickr.
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A close encounter with the world of high art:
Fanfarra Recreativa Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) and Fanfarra S. Bernardo meet the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Serralves Museum, Porto, Saturday and Sunday, 29 and 30 March.
 Fanfarra S. Bernardo (left) and F.R.I.C.S (right) in the hall of Serralves Museum.
The psychedelic improvised fanfare, F.R.I.C.S., fulfilled their long-term dream of playing with a real marching band as they teamed up with Fanfarra S. Bernardo, one of Portugal's leading marching bands (and they don't just march, ocasionally they perform on horseback), to provide the musical backdrop to Trisha Brown's contemporary dance piece, “Foray Forêt”. Both groups marched around the performance space (out of the audience's sight), in a clever demonstration of archaic surround sound technology, and then played in the Museum's hall, while a raptured audience looked on.
The occasion proved memorable on a number of levels: it involved members of F.R.I.C.S. getting suitable haircuts for a proper marching band context, and also the purchase of seven beautiful silk ties that will feature prominently in the band's future, but most important of all was the close contact with the magical world of the marching bands, possibly the last surviving portuguese descendant of the ancient universal shamanic sound traditions, a mix of sheer volume (which inspired the term “acoustic noise” from a F.R.I.C.S. member), wine-facilitated enthusiasm, and timeless integrity and class.
Stay tuned for more large-scale collaborations between the classic and mutant marching bands.
More F.R.I.C.S. at Myspace and LastFM. More pictures from this show on Flickr.
The two heads of Soopa, in their members of F.R.I.C.S. identity, contemplate the glorious future with new, specially-made haircuts, during a break from rehearsals at Serralves Museum.
Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Mercado do Bolhão, Porto, Saturday, 16 February.
Bolhão is a traditional market in Porto, where a lot of the city's cultural identity resides, safely kept by a brigade of strong-voiced, foul-mouthed and irrepressible saleswomen. At this time, Porto's city hall has announced plans to transform the market into a posh shopping centre, which has led to various protest actions. In the context of one of these actions, F.R.I.C.S. had the pleasure and the honour of exchanging a saturday morning's sleep for a musical march in the market.
Youtube video of the performance (complete with "ghost delay" after-the-fact effects) here.
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Casa Viva, Porto, Saturday, 9 February.
F.R.I.C.S. appeared in the familiar setting of Casa Viva (where the live album "Abraço Vivo" had been recorded one year and six days before) for a performance which was memorable for three reasons: the debut of Sr. Almeida's trumpet/effects pedal set-up, the first time the very manly F.R.I.C.S. performed with a female member, and the band's first TV appearance, on the 1pm newscast the following day. The night was organised by Porta 65, a movement that adresses the issues of governmental housing support for young people.
Youtube links: the newscast and an audience video of the concert's encore.
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Bar Carpe Diem, Portalegre, Wednesday, 30 January.
F.R.I.C.S. continued their unstoppable march across Portugal's psycho-geo-political map with the 12th stop on their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals. This month, they got to the letter P with a performance in Portalegre. The letter P (as in "psychedelic") will be concluded in Porto in February, the month that marks the first anniversary of the tour!
More F.R.I.C.S. at Myspace (with a new track recently uploaded) and LastFM.
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2007:
Mécanosphère at Theatro Circo, Braga, Friday, 21 December.
On the night of the Winter Solstice, Mécanosphère came down from the stratospheric territories of their recent Sputnik Day mission and re-entered the dark regions of the mind for a ceremony of spoken-scapes, sound-words, spirit channel routing and offerings of sacrificial dub.
more info: Theatro Circo
and: Mécanosphère
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Maus Hábitos, Porto, Saturday, 15 December. 
The day after the Lisbon show, F.R.I.C.S. returned to Porto for a show included in the context of Feira Laica, a sales-fest featuring independent labels, fanzine and comicbook publishers, assorted trinkets and upcoming designers. This concert was a special occasion for F.R.I.C.S., since it happened one year after their first ever concert, in the very same venue; and the night turned out to be very special indeed, with wine, smiles, sweat and stadium-rock levels of hysteria flowing from the audience to the stage, and vice-versa. View more photos here.
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Soopa at Feira Laica, Maus Hábitos, Porto, Saturday, 15 December.
For the first time, Soopa took part in a fair (Feira Laica in this case - see above for more info), installing a stand for the occasion where CDs and other artifacts, such as mentally-bent spoons, were for sale. An afternoon of trading was rewarded with the sale of one copy of "Sharp Claws Cats", which is much better than our usual average of 0,000000000462 records sold per day.
more on Feira Laica here.
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Fábrica Braço de Prata, Lisbon, Friday, 14 December.
F.R.I.C.S. concluded the L section of their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal’s district capitals with an appearance at Fábrica Braço de Prata in Lisbon. The show was memorable for various reasons, such as the presence of guests Rodrigo Pinheiro and Abdul Moimeme, and the fact that most of the CDs in the merchandising stand were sold, much thanks to a new strategy of “insistent sales techniques” carried out by a friend of the band.
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Micah Blue Smaldone and Chriss Sutherland at Casa Viva, Porto, Thursday, 6 December.
The criminally scarce audience at Casa Viva (including the shaman from the previous week) were treated to a double bill of ragged acoustic Americana folksong. First on was Micah Blue Smaldone, with his circular guitar figures, broken voice and spine-tingling songs about vultures and dead love; next up was Chriss Sutherland, returning after his memorable show the previous April. His songs were a trampoline to ecstasy, his blurred hands making the acoustic guitar freeze into a tamboura-like drone, his voice rising and his eyes turning somewhere else. A thrilling set was aptly rounded off with a two-chord, punk-primal version of El Camerón de La Isla, the master of melodramatic flamenco.
more info on Chriss at www.myspace.com/chrisssutherland and on Micah at www.myspace.com/micahbluesmaldone
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Trio Reality in Café Piolho, Porto, and the streets of Porto, Tuesday, 4 December.
In another giant step down the road to the unknown glories of psychedelism, a group of Soopa members and friends took part in a musical parade in the streets of Porto only because the country’s leading newspaper wrongly claimed that Soopa would be taking part in the event (an invitation adressed to Soopa had been declined). A crisis meeting was convened, and after discussing the lack of necessity of real action once that action has already been described by the media (history is what is written…), the Trio Reality decided, à la Jorge Luis Borges, that the reality created by a written page would have to be put to practice. Two versions of John Cage’s Silent Piece (a.k.a. 4’33’’) were performed in Café Piolho, followed by a short improvisation on sax and percussion. This was then followed by a noisy march down the chilly streets, to the annoyance of the other parade members. Truth is stranger than fiction.
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The Bug at Casa da Música, Porto, Saturday, 1 December.
Soopa fulfilled a long-term wish by bringing The Bug (a.k.a. Kevin Martin, a legendary traveller down the road of noise-industrial-dub-jazz with bands such as God and Techno Animal) to Porto (and Portugal, for that matter) for the first time.
In the posh sci-plastic scenario of Casa da Música, The Bug opened his set with the wail of sirens, just to let people know what was coming. He then proceeded to serve an hour of glass-shaking, staff-terrorising, audience-transfiguring bass pressure, complemented by subsonic beat bombardments and infinite hall-of-mirrors delays.
A memorable night of masochistic tinnitus pleasure, rendered even more memorable by the long conversations with Kevin about bass science, the Master Musicians of Jajouka and JG Ballard.
more info at www.myspace.com/thebuguk
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) in Leiria, Friday, 30 November.
In an unprecented moment of prudence, F.R.I.C.S. returned to Leiria, two weeks after their performance on the alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal’s district capitals, just to make sure they had really been there.
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Rinus van Alebeek at Casa Viva, Porto, Thursday, 29 November.
Self-described dutch pop musician Rinus van Alebeek, manipulator of tapes and realities and audio-novelist, visited Porto for a conference at the Fine Arts University and a concert in Casa Viva. The conference, held in an auditorium with all the lights turned off, was a masterly display of how to lead young artists down the road of absurdity, perversity and mental health. Later on, the concert mixed numerous tapes through Rinus’s custom-made “acoustic laptop” system, creating instant mental landscapes, soundtracks and book pages of the soul. Among the audience stood out a supposed shaman en route to Jerusalem, who confessed to Rinus the concert had been “healing”. If you ever wonder how to measure success, healing a shaman is definitely making it, big time.
more at www.myspace.com/rinusvanalebeek
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Jonathan hhy hits the dancefloor! "Alugo-me Para Sonhar", at Auditório de Espinho, Espinho, Saturday, 17 November, and Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, 24 November.
"Alugo-me Para Sonhar", the new piece by coreographer Isabel Barros, mixes contemporary dance, operatic singing and a truly abracadabra-top hat-styled magic soundtrack by Soopa's Jonathan hhy. The piece deals with the dream space that exists in between the ground and the air, and invokes the various creatures that inhabit that space, with a semi-live, semi-recorded flow of voice, feedback, strings, reeds and lots more. The piece will open on November 17 at Auditório de Espinho; stay tuned for more dates.
more info (in Portuguese): www.balleteatro.pt
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.)
in Leiria, Thursday, 15 November.
F.R.I.C.S. began the L section of their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals with a concert in Leiria.
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Praça D. João I, Porto, Monday, 15 October.
F.R.I.C.S. joined the celebration of the first anniversary of the occupation of Teatro Rivoli, in Porto, by a group of citizens protesting against the theater's transition from public to private ownership. One year later, music and words filled the Praça D. João I, the square in front of the theatre, with F.R.I.C.S.'s contribution consisting on a 5-minute noise crescendo, conducted by a human stopwatch and ending exactly at midnight, as the law requires.
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) in Fátima and Cafeína Café, Guarda, Saturday, 13 October. 
On the 90th anniversary of the Virgin Mary's last apparition in Fátima, F.R.I.C.S. made a considerable detour from the path of their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals to pay a visit to Portugal's christian Mecca. Amazingly, considering the occasion, not many pilgrims were present, which proves that F.R.I.C.S. will never get a large audience, even in a holy city on the anniversary of a miracle...
Stay tuned for upcoming pictures of F.R.I.C.S. performing close to Fátima Sanctuary; for now, enjoy the rather degrading photos of the post-performance picnic on a parking lot for pilgrim tour buses.
Later the same day, the "G" section of the alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals was fulfilled with a concert at Cafeína Café, in Guarda, literally the high point of the tour (Guarda being Portugal's highest city). The band then returned home, having plotted an inverted pyramid-shaped trajectory across the country.
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International Sputnik Day(s) with Mécanosphère and Ewen Chardronnet, Porto, Thursday, 4 October, Lisbon, Friday-Saturday, 5-6 October.
Doom-dub-radiant unit Mécanosphère teamed up with audio ghostbuster Ewen Chardronnet for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Sputnik's first flight, on October 4 1957. A series of 2 conferences (Fine Arts University, Porto and Fábrica Braço de Prata, Lisbon) and 2 concerts (Fundação Serralves, Porto and Galeria ZDB, Lisbon) addressed subjects such as world wide surveillance and the end of the Space Dream via the tools of video, spoken word and sonics. A small step for mankind, a giant leap for all involved.
more Mécanosphère at www.myspace.com/mecanosphere1
and more Ewen Chardronnet at http://semaphore.blogs.com and http://semaphore.blogs.com/aaa
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at ReMade Portugal, Lisbon, Wednesday, 3 October.
F.R.I.C.S. were part of the musical programme of ReMade Portugal, an exhibition on the subject of ecologically-friendly design. While being deeply friendly and ecological, F.R.I.C.S. is also an example of alternative design, which made this appearance very worthwhile, besides the performance fee, of course, which will help save the alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals from the claws of tragic bankrupcy.
F.R.I.C.S. now also on Last.fm! go to www.last.fm/music/F.R.I.C.S.
And also www.myspace.com/fanfarraimprovisada
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Bar Havana, Faro, Saturday, 29 September.
F.R.I.C.S. completed the F section of their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals with a visit to Faro, on the southern tip of the country, in what amounted to the longest trip of the tour (1140 km total).
The concert took place in Bar Havana, a Cuban-themed beach bar that, as the night went on, gradually started to resemble a space smuggler bar in the moon of Zargonis 12. Despite the slepping arrangements for F.R.I.C.S. failing, forcing the band to drive straight back after the show, things went generally well: the few CDs in the merchandising bag were sold out, and the aliens were friendly.
more F.R.I.C.S. at myspace.com/fanfarraimprovisada
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) all over the city of Ourense, Spain, Friday 21 September and Saturday 22 September.
F.R.I.C.S. marched over the border for a truly surreal weekend, only a fraction of which can be put into words. On the first day (which was the International Alzheimer Day), a short performance at Alterarte, Ourense University's art gallery, on the occasion of the opening of "F.R.I.C.S. - Exposed", a month-long exhibition about the psychedelic fanfare (why would anybody want to do an exhibition about F.R.I.C.S. is still beyond our understanding). This was followed by a performance along the city's streets.
The next day (which was the anniversary of Chaka Zulu's death), F.R.I.C.S. took part in the city hall-sponsored "Dionysiac Feast", leading a procession of smoking nymphs, naughty monks, monsters and other being through the streets of the old town.
And finally the fanfare went home, leaving behind, as the centrepiece of the "F.R.I.C.S. - Exposed" exhibition, a lovingly made psychedelic multimedia altar that pours wine to the gallery's visitors. The altar will soon feature footage from the weekend's performances.
Here are some reviews:
"You have to see it to understand it." - La Voz de Ourense (newspaper)
"(...) leading the procession were F.R.I.C.S., in whose presence one felt compelled to stick one's fingers in one's ears, because of the band's ''deconstructed'' music." - La Voz de Galiza (newspaper)
"You're all handsome, but you play very weird." - One of the Smoking Nymphs.
more at:
www.myspace.com/fanfarraimprovisada
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax1kGSepw2g (a short video)
www.vicou.uvigo.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=37 (information on Alterarte)
www.flickr.com/photos/joaomartins/1435093675/ (photo gallery)
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hhy Scumclash DJ Set at Passos Manuel, Porto, Thursday 20 September.
Soopa's hhy adopted his DJ Scumclash identity for an appearance at Passos Manuel, on a night organized by our buddies from Marvellous Tone and also featuring Anta Mobile. Due to the growing legal restrictions on the use of CDs which haven't been acquired at stores, Scumclash's set was almost entirely made of meta-ballads from Soopa's various releases, which is not that bad after all...
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Wade Matthews/Reuben Radding duo & Camilla Hannan at Plano B, Porto, Saturday 15 September.
Soopa brushed shoulders with the jet-set, beautiful people crowd at Plano B to present an evening of improvisation and abstract-concrète electronica. First, Camilla Hannan used field recordings as a starting point for electronic manipulation with subtle shifts in texture and a slow increase in volume. The effect of the squeaky samples, combined with the lighting of Plano B's concert room (very, very weird) suggested being aboard a wooden boat in bad weather. Also, laptop players should take notice of Camilla's waist movements, more than sufficient evidence that electronica hasn't made her forget The Funk.
Next, Wade Matthews played bass clarinet, alto flute and electronics accompanied by double bassist Reuben Radding. Their set included classic improv, arcade game-styled electronics, and a psychedelic moment when the sound leaking from the dancefloor next door distilled a new style: acoustic improv with a techno beat.
As usual, a great time was spent with the musicians, with nice conversations about Dave Grohl, Sun Ra, australian wine, animated films and wolf testicles.
more info: camillahannan.com
wadematthews.info
reubenradding.com
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at ST CULTERRA Parque Urbano da Rabada - Burgães, Santo Tirso, 1 September.
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Jonathan hhy is featured in a Soopa-dedicated program at Silent-Block, Brussels, Friday, 19 August.
A two hour radio show with lots of Soopa oldies and new releases, plus a live dub session by hhy at the end of the radio program. Recorded at the great Silent-Block studio in Brussels, recent radio collaborations on Silent-Block by Otto Von Schirach, Ripit, Dj Urine among many others, check it out!
more at:
www.myspace.com/silentblockstudio
www.silent-block.org/frequency/sbs070819_soopa.mp3
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Festival Paredes de Coura, Paredes de Coura, Wednesday, 15 August.
F.R.I.C.S. fulfilled its fate of pop mega-stardom with an afternoon concert at one of Portugal's summer festivals, where they shared the day with Sonic Youth, among other bands. In their first encounter with big time reality, F.R.I.C.S. were armed with t-shirts for sale, mental strobe lights, emotional UFOs and a good amount of unexpectedness.
more F.R.I.C.S. at myspace.com/fanfarraimprovisada
more info on the festival at paredesdecoura.com
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hhy versus Beast Box at Elektrocution:Ignite Festival, Sesimbra, Friday, 3 August.
The duo of hhy, Benjamin Brejon and Beast Box (hhy and Benjamin Brejon) were further multiplied by Monsieur Fredéric and his video projections of homemade celestial vehicles and timeless trance traditions for a multi-headed and multi-tentacled performance at a big field (and rave venue) near Sesimbra. The audience was treated to a mix of surrealist automatism, good old instant sweat and psychedelic noise calypso.
more on hhy & BeastBox at myspace.com/hhyscumclash and myspace.com/mecanosphere1
about Ignite on http://elektrocutionfestival.com
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Sociedade Harmonia Eborense, Évora, Wednesday, 1 August.
5 days after the Coimbra show, F.R.I.C.S. marched through the only E on the list of the Alphabetically Ordered Tour Of Portugal's District Capitals. The band faced the intense heat (hot enough to turn krypton into xenon) with bravery, and the show will go down in history for the first appearance of the strobe bass drum, which will hopefully become a mainstay of F.R.I.C.S.'s live set.
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Salão Brazil, Coimbra, Friday, 27 July. 
On July 27, the psychedelic marching band F.R.I.C.S. completed the C section of the Alphabetically Ordered Tour Of Portugal's District Capitals with a performance at Coimbra's Salão Brazil. Memories from the night include a ghost city in which maybe half the population was at the show (around 5 people), a blind guardian angel, and an abrupt end to the concert due to the intervention of the fearsome Invisible Police of Coimbra.
All in all, the psychedelic army marches on.
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Maga Bo at Plano B, Porto, Friday, July 20.
Brazilian/American DJ and producer Maga Bo appeared at Plano B in Porto, and slowly but surely won over the ultra-jet-set portion of the audience (the rest was won over in 2 seconds), everything ending in generalised dancing. The warm-up act was Soopa's DJSurprise duo, who managed to lower the room temperature with a senseless mix of Brazilian bird calls, beats and Moroccan trance. Hurrah for failure!
more on Maga Bo at myspace.com/magabo, sootrecords.com
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Clube Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Friday, June 29.
F.R.I.C.S. hit the "C" on their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals! Highlights included each member of the band being awarded with a copy of different B-series crime paperbacks by the gig's organizer, a victim of psychedelic drugs in the 70s.
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Jugalbandi at The International Yoga Day, Estádio do Restelo, Lisbon, Sunday, June 24.
Jugalbandi (the classical indian music group featuring Franklin Pereira and hhy) found themselves trapped between dimensions as their ragas echoed around a football stadium filled with thousands of yoga practioners. The audience might just have levitated to the sound of sitar and tabla, but the musicians were too busy dodging the passing panoptic rays of light and the hypnotic stare of a cyclops dressed in white who floated around the stadium, and so they couldn't notice if anyone was freed from the prison of new-gravity-age.
To sum it up, another giant Soopa step into the unknown.
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Sede do Sporting and various outdoor locations, Porto, Saturday, June 23.
On St. John's night (which in Porto is a night of celebration, paper baloons, drinking and crypto-pagan activities), F.R.I.C.S. contributed to the general mood of popular psychedelia with a performance in 3 parts: first they played under the giant neon cross that publicizes the local staging of "Jesus Christ Superstar: The Musical", then they marched up the steep Porto streets to an enthusiastic reception, and finally they played a "regular" concert at a small bar. A perfect union of musicians, audience, and alcoholic vapours was achieved, and lasted well into the night.
more pics:www.flickr.com/photos/joaomartins/sets/72157600496266107
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Filastine at Festival Serralves em Festa, Fundação Serralves, Porto, Saturday-Sunday, June 2-3.
In the first weekend of June, Soopa curated part of the nonstop free festival Serralves em Festa with the first Portuguese visit of Filastine, one of the founding members of radical marching band Infernal Noise Brigade, and a sweat-inducing club DJ and composer of wildly diverse and dirty laptop music. Filastine performed 3 sets in 2 days, filled with memorable moments involving old ladies, circle dancing, a laptop system crash and rising dust. More info on Filastine at www.filastine.com and farwardsound.blogspot.com (in Portuguese).
Full programme for Serralves em Festa at www.serralvesemfesta.com
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) all over the city of Bragança, Saturday, May 26.
F.R.I.C.S., the psychedelic marching band, completed the "B" section of their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals in Bragança. Heavily weakened by various factors like car crashes, jazz concerts and dinner parties, it was a quartet version of F.R.I.C.S. that, having failed to secure a gig in Bragança, squatted a bandstand, played in the streets and in the stairway of the Municipal Theatre, before finding a home in Floresta ("Forest"), a hospitable café, where they provided some drinking music for the patrons' saturday night.
Video evidence can be found at:
youtube.com/results?search_query=F.R.I.C.S.&search=Search
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Arrington de Dionyso at Café Pinguim, Porto, Friday, May 11.
Self-styled american throatsinger, bass clarinettist and modern shaman Arrington de Dionyso performed on a double bill with Josetxo Grieta (the new band of basque noisician Mattin), on a night co-organized by Soopa, Esquilo Records and Binaural. The following day, Arrington teamed up with Soopa's meta-ethnic trance project Herzbeat Hotel for a recording session that might surface in the future.
More info at: myspace.com/arringtondedionyso
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José Mário Branco & Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Casa Viva, Porto, Thursday, May 24.
In an event organised by Plataforma Artigo 65 (an association working for the recognition of the right to decent housing for all citizens), F.R.I.C.S. had the unforgettable honour of sharing the bill with José Mário Branco, a legend of portuguese music and politics since the early 70s, when he emerged as part of a generation of singer/songwriters who were fighting the fascist regime with song, risking their jobs, well-being and lives in the process.
more info: plataformaartigo65.org, myspace.com/fanfarraimprovisada, casa-viva.blogspot.com
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Jugalbandi at Museu Guerra Junqueiro, Porto, Friday, May 18.
Jugalbandi (Franklin Pereira- Sitar, Jonathan hhy- Tabla, Gatham, and Paulo Gusmão- Slide Guitar) presented the raga Raga Myan Ki Malhar; created by Myan Tansen, one of India's greatest musicians, in the late 16th-early 17th century.
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+ASDC+ vs. Don The Tiger & Justice Yeldham at Casa Viva, Porto, Thursday, May 17. 
The night of May 17 saw the return of the legendary Justice Yeldham (a.k.a. Lucas Abela) for another venture into "don't try this at home" territory. With his costumary set-up of amplified glass and effects pedals, Justice treated the audience to a fine mix of noise, psychedelism and radical performance. Also appearing was the spanish duo of +ASDC+ and Don The Tiger, with a blend of feedback, martial beats and post-industrial noise.
more at:
myspace.com/arnausala
myspace.com/justiceyeldham
dualplover.com
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Arca d'Água garden, Porto, Sunday, April 29. 
In between shows on their alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals, F.R.I.C.S. returned to the bandstand of Arca d'Água for an afternoon show which celebrated the International Dance Day. One of the day's highlights was the appearance of two gifted young drummers (see photo) who showed their skills after the show.
more F.R.I.C.S. at myspace.com/fanfarraimprovisada
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Toulemonde/Cancoin/Kowalski/Desmarcheliers at Passos Manuel, Porto, Friday, April 27.
The french quartet appeared at Passos Manuel for a totally acoustic set (acoustic guitar, resonant objects, double bass and saxophone) that entranced the (historically scarce) audience. Check out more about them and their Ishtar Collective at collectif.ishtar.9online.fr.
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Chriss Sutherland & Thérèse at Mercado Negro, Aveiro, Thursday April 12 and Casa Viva, Porto, Friday April 13.
The great Chriss Sutherland (founder of USA psych-folk icons Cerberus Shoal) and his partner Thérèse visited Portugal for 2 shows combining acoustic guitars, accordian and ukelele with mid-eastern drums and wind instruments, a blend of Woody Guthrie-styled fervor and Sun City Girls oblique arrangements. We also had the chance to have some very pleasant conversations about cross-dressing shamans and old school hip-hop. Thank you Chriss and Thérèse for a great time!
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BEASTBOX at Central Nuclear Siberia Extremeña, Badajoz, Spain, Thursday, April 12. 
BEASTBOX (Benjamin Brejon and Jonathan hhy) crossed the border to Spain, and then crossed the border again into the Interzone for a hypnagogic audio séance in a disused nuclear power plant. Here's their own account of the adventure:
SIBERIA :
We went to the extreme siberia of ExtremaDura, to attend the gathering and blast the breaks at some point. The whole town of Valdecabaleros ( or valetadascaveiras) grew around the nuclear program and the construction of the power station. Buildings for workers, hotels and an impressive amount of kindergarten were erected in this remote and rather desolated landscape. From a Disco Siberia to an Atomic Hotel, to a classroom proudly baptized " Neil Armstrong", everything evokes the remains of an Invocation Ritual to the Atom God and, perhaps, the secret perspective of a launching pod to finally reach the the outer space / or, reversely, an all- attractive site for Those From There to land. This safari into the future was brutally aborted : the nuclear power station was never finished and activated, no fission went on, the workers left, the colony never happened, the future generation was not born and THEY never came. The town trapped between the hills and the artificial lake is now again an unpopulated place, with goat and deer skulls hanging on the walls of the cafés, abandoned buildings and desert kindergarten. Tarkovski's Zone or Twin Peaks revisited, or again JG Ballard's " Memory of The Space Age"....The shadow of the power station that never existed is present everywhere : the terrestrial animals ( Fauna Terraquea) consisting of goats and pigs never mutated nor had commerce with the celestial ones.
In this landscape of dark reservoirs and olive trees, we met other psychonauts in what could be described as a massive showcase of odd parallel architectures, perspectives and radar routing.
We finally left the Interzone after two days and went back home, on the road that crosses the flatland and passes by the village called " Hernan Cortes".
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) all over the city of Braga, and at Censura Prévia, Braga, Sunday, April 8. 
The third stop in F.R.I.C.S's alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals took place on Easter Sunday in Braga. Given the presence of less than 5 audience members by the time the show was supposed to begin, F.R.I.C.S. took to the streets and marched for an hour around the old part of town, surprising some people and amusing others with their melodramatic popular songs, while gathering a handful of followers. Having played their way back into the venue, the band performed another set late in the afternoon, with the members of FreakNation (the basque Grindcore band that shared the bill) guesting on the last song. All in all, a healthy day out. Next stop in the tour: Bragança, in May.
More at: www.myspace.com/fanfarraimprovisada
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Fanfarra Recreativa Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Coreto do Jardim da Arca d'Água, Porto, Saturday, March 31. 
F.R.I.C.S. took a break from the alphabetically ordered tour of Portugal's district capitals with a perfomance at Porto's Arca d'Água Garden on March 31. An appreciative audience featuring several icons of Porto's death metal scene, but also including various F.R.I.C.S. family members, faced the chilly afternoon air and inspired the band to an energetic performance.
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Fanfarra Recreativa Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Galeria do Desassossego, Beja, Saturday, March 24.
A 5-hour drive led the members of F.R.I.C.S. to the second show of their tour of Portugal's district capitals in alphabetical order, which took in place in Beja. The magnificent dinner provided by the staff at Galeria do Desassossego was one of the night's highlights, which also included an enthusiastic audience member who worked as a volunteer photographer, and, of course, the concert itself.
Next stop: Braga, on April 8 (Easter Sunday).
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Jugalbandi at Biblioteca Lúcio Craveiro da Silva, Braga, Friday, March 23.
Jugalbandi (Franklin Pereira, Jonathan hhy and Paulo Gusmão) welcomed the new season in their own way by presenting the recital "The Springtime of Notes", which in fact is the translation of "surbahar", one of the string instruments they use. Two ragas were performed, Raga Vasant and Raga Myan Ki Malhar; the latter is believed to have been created by Myan Tansen, one of India's greatest musicians, in the late 16th-early 17th century.
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Srosh at Museu D. Diogo de Sousa, Braga, Wednesday, March 21.
Srosh (Henrique Gameboy, Jonathan hhy and Rui Leal) celebrated the arrival of spring by performing a selection of various soundscapes to an audience of children and their families. The concert also featured four songs performed by schoolchildren; here is a drawing of the show made by members of the audience.
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Soopa meets The Folk Songs Project
On the weekend of March 16-17, we had the pleasure of meeting David Gunn, Tom Davis and Alistair Dant, a.k.a. The Folk Songs Project crew, who are in Portugal recording the soundscapes of five cities. The end results will be included in a website, "Cinco Cidades" ("Five Cities") and will also be used as sonic background for improvisation by the Folk Songs Trio, featuring William Parker (double bass), Guillermo E. Brown (percussion) and Victor Gama (invented instruments); Victor's PangeiArt organization is co-producing the project. Over two days we walked the city with David, Tom and Alistair, recording pigeon's wings rustling, a Fado nightclub that also hosts tranvestite shows, church bells, kids playing football, and the owner of a tiny restaurant explaining how to cook a francesinha, Porto's gastronomic icon, among other sounds. We'd like to thank the guys for such a great time, and stay tuned for the Folk Songs Trio, who are touring Portugal between May 10 and 19 (Porto show on the 12th, at Fundação de Serralves).
www.folksongsproject.com, www.cincocidades.com
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Herzbeat Hotel/Birds of Delay at Maus Hábitos, Porto, Friday, March 9. 
Herzbeat Hotel, Soopa's psychedelic voodoo ensemble, remembered the anniversaries of the bombing of Tokyo by the USAF in 1945, the attacks in Washington DC by the Hanafi Muslim group in 1977, the recovery of the bodies of the Challenger space shuttle crew in 1986, and the shooting of Notorious B.I.G. in 1997, by presenting the piece "Armored Impala Cycle", which succeeded in driving out all the bad energy from the room. Or not...
Next up were Birds of Delay, the duo of Steven Warwick and Luke Younger, who brought their noise/major chord/drone/bliss to Portugal for the first time, entrancing the audience with a softly distorted alternative to Fripp&Eno's 70s classics "No Pussyfooting" and "Evening Star", until they were rudely interrupted by the DJ who was playing next, who unbelievabely walked on stage and told them to stop playing!
This "DJ" then gave everybody a lesson on how you can play techno on a friday night and still manage to clear a dancefloor... amazing!
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Jugalbandy at Oriente no Porto, Porto, Saturday, February 24.
Jugalbandy, the classical indian music group featuring Franklin Pereira (Sitar) and Jonathan Cactus Man (Tabla) continued their tour of northern Portugal's indian and vegetarian restaurants with a performance of Raga Myan ki Malhar at Oriente no Porto, a restaurant that also works as a Hare Krishna temple.
Myan ki Malhar is a raga usually associated with India's monsoon season (June-September), but it can also be performed as an evening raga in other times of the year. It is believed to have been created by Myan Tansen, one of India's greatest musicians, in the late 16th-early 17th century, and its mood is one of joy for the return of the rain after many months of drought, balanced by the pain brought by the absence of a lover.
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Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa (F.R.I.C.S.) at Mercado Negro, Aveiro, Friday, February 16.
After their triumphant appearance in Porto two weeks earlier, F.R.I.C.S. began their monthly tour of Portugal's district capitals (in alphabetical order!) in Aveiro, leaving a trail of wine stains in their wake. The next stop is Beja, then Braga, and so on for 17 more months! Stay tuned for updates!
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F.R.I.C.S. (Fanfarra Recreativa e Improvisada Colher de Sopa) at Casa Viva, Porto Saturday, February 3.
The celebration of issue number 1 of "Pica-Miolos" ("Brain Shredder"), a newsletter published by the one and only Casa Viva crew, was the scenery for an hour of chops, licks, blasts, bleeps and claps from the nine members of F.R.I.C.S. The mix of brass, percussion, strings, keyboards and analogue synth, seasoned with grindcore, love and nine swaying bodies onstage brought a lasting smile to audience and musicians alike.
The recording of the concert is available from soopa@soopa.org as a limited-edition CD-R.
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