Soopa is a...
Record label:
Established as a label in 2004 in Porto, Portugal, Soopa is oriented around the axis of Jonathan Saldanha (a.k.a. hhy scumclash) and Filipe Silva (a.k.a. The Banshee), with a massive of collaborators.
Our work spans across style and geography, combining releases from local artists with albums by musicians from all over the world.
The common denominator to the label's releases is an endless search for a transformation of reality, placing music at the center of transfixing phenomena, in various complementary contexts such as traditional and contemporary ritualism, subconscious cut-up/free-association, psychedelic mental states (minus the chemicals), or dub as a form of sound mapping; this approach is often made visible in the somewhat hallucinatory artwork for the label's releases and events.
In the 4 years since its inception, Soopa has released 11 titles by local artists such as hhy and Herzbeat Hotel, by transnational collaborative units like Mécanosphère and United Scum Soundclash, or by fellow travellers Spiral Joy Band (USA) and Mathieu Werchowski/David Chiesa (France).
Upcoming in the next months are releases by Porto's omnipresent grindcore drummer/electroacoustic composer Gustavo Costa, in his Most People Have Been Trained To Be Bored guise (Soopa's first vinyl release) and by the brutal improv dynamic duo of John Hegre (Jazzkammer) and Marcelo Aguirre (Abominations, Pregnant Testicle).
Soopa's releases are available for purchase from our main website , or by contacting [email protected].
And Soopa is also a...
Musicians' collective:
Before its establishment as a label, Soopa had already existed for some years as a concept bringing together likeminded musicians from the Porto area who, regardless of their aesthetic areas, shared an ideology of exploratory, DIY music-making.
Very quickly, this led to the foundation of a web of music projects, often sharing personnel, ranging from the (un)holy music of Herzbeat Hotel to the burlesque psychedelia of F.R.I.C.S., the dub séances of Mécanosphère and the one-man beat attacks of hhy.
This network, organised in the style of a semi-visible secret society, has expanded into becoming part of a worldwide community that includes collaborators like Raz Mesinai (USA), Ripit (France/Belgium), Sikhara (USA), Ove-Naxx (Japan), Arrington de Dionyso (USA), DJ Scotch Egg (Japan/UK), Alejandro González Novoa (Argentina) and Eugene Chadbourne (USA).
This collaborative spirit is one of Soopa's cornerstones, and it is also pursued through our ongoing activity as event organisers (around 100 concerts in 5 years), featuring musicians from all over the map.
Learn more about Soopa's music projects on our main website .
Join the Soopa events mailing list by contacting us at [email protected].
Below are assorted pictures of the Soopa crew, friends, events, posters and artwork.