The Crystal Cabinet

The Crystal Cabinet is a timeless musical project that began in mid-1982 and is still active today.

They came across an annotated edition of William Blake, a discovery that would prove unexpectedly consequential.
What began as a fascination with Blake’s poems soon developed into a relentless discussion about their meanings, symbols, contradictions, and mysteries. Rather than settling the argument, they started setting the poems to music. More than forty years later, the debate remains unresolved and the songs are still being played.

There would be a lot to tell about their musical career, which has always been based on a peculiar interpretation of musical and literary influences common to its members, João Nieto and Rui Sousa, rarely shared with the public but with a vast repertoire.

"Music won't last if it's not shared"

Mário Cruz

Mario Cruz is an independent photographer, editor and curator focused on social injustice and human rights issues.
His projects have been recognized worldwide.
Recent Blindness - Estacao Imagem 2014 Award; Talibes: Modern Day Slaves - World Press Photo 2016, Picture Of the Year 2016, Magnum Photography Awards 2016; Estação Imagem Award 2016; Living Among What’s Left Behind – World Press Photo 2019, Portuguese Society of Authors - Best photography exhibition 2020; Roof - Magnum 30 Under 30 Award 2015, Luis Valtueña International Humanitarian Photography Award 2024, CCP 2025 Award best Book design.
His work has been published in Newsweek, International New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, El Pais, CTXT and Neue Zurcher Zeitung.
Mario Cruz made all the photos for the album "Louisville" about United States, in 2020

Valdemar Torres

Born a long time ago in Oporto, Portugal. His childhood and pre-adolescence were deeply influenced by Karl Marx and Sandokan.
From a very early age, he was attracted to unconventional literature, films and especially music.
After Marx, came The Virgin Prunes, Pasolini, Camus… But with Sandokan forever present!

Tired of the small, reserved and decrepit city of Oporto, he moved to London, where he lived for many years and had countless adventures of which details are not meant to be recalled.
There he met his Spanish wife to be, Miriam, and soon they decided to go and live in Asturias, Spain, where they had a daughter, who they called Morgana.
With the firm intention of providing her with the same interesting youth they had both enjoyed, they moved to Rome, Italy, where they set up camp.

He is an English and Portuguese teacher, has a dog and an enormous amount of books, records and memories.

LONG LIVE MOMPRACEM !

Rick Blackman

Rick Blackman is a musician, songwriter, arranger and producer from London who has worked on many projects alongside artists such as Paul Weller, Mick Jones, Glen Matlock, Rumer and more.
He has released several albums with his own band The Cavendish Set and has had his songs play-listed and voted ‘songs of the week’ on BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music.

Has been active since the 1980s at the intersection of music, subcultures, and political engagement, and is particularly known for his involvement in anti-fascist and anti-racist campaigns such as Love Music Hate Racism.

As an author, he wrote Babylon’s Burning, a key work that examines music and youth subcultures in the UK as sites of political contestation and anti-fascist struggle, combining cultural history with activism.

Amândio Barbosa

Rui Sousa

Born in Porto in 1966, he has spent most of his life in the city, interrupted only by occasional excursions into the wider world. In 1981, he picked up the bass guitar alongside a lifelong friend and musical accomplice.

His first concert took place at Aurélia de Sousa High School in 1982. It lasted barely ten minutes, but that was apparently enough. Music quickly became the dominant force in his life, leading him through bands, concert promotion, studio recordings, television appearances, and the many improvised realities that define independent music.
Over the decades, he has operated both onstage and behind the scenes, equally comfortable as musician, organiser, producer, and occasional instigator.

Most recently, he returned to the long-dormant repertoire of The Crystal Cabinet, recording and reviving material that had remained largely unheard for more than forty years.
The result is less a reunion with the past than a continuation of unfinished business. Four decades after those first encounters with Blake, he re-emerges as both musician and producer, still pursuing the same questions, still convinced that music remains the most effective way of avoiding definitive answers.

Imundo Decoro

O Imundo Decoro is a separate Order in the swampy world of acoustic gnosis it belongs to, more specifically a sub-dimension of gnostic gnosis. Occult in nature for its members, its concept is shared by its creator, A. Luís Vaz Patto, an activist in various sound explorations like Bastardos do Cardeal, Major Alvega, and more recently Lödo, among others. On strings, he is accompanied by João Vieira, a regular resident of the presbytery of this creationist denial, who has been involved in the aforementioned Lödo and other troubled sonic experiments, such as Borboletas do Loto Azul and O Pânico do Vermelho.
For the vocal cords, the services of Artur Abreu were called upon; he presents himself to existence as a music lover, teacher, and cultural agitator, among other activities that are extensive and don’t feel out of place in his distant offstage voice.
A request was made to the deity to intercede in Helena Luísa Soares' work, already accustomed to these creationist dealings of the word that spreads like revelation: passionate about scissors and the invisibility of lunar energy - because it is hidden on its dark side - as well as in the making of salt and images as narratives of the color of the characters she almost compulsively gives a voice to, she answered the pleas and also became a member of the Order.
Anti-cult dedicated to Our Lord João da Silva (a god at your service), O Imundo Decoro has the mission to spread His word: do you see the little dot in the right corner? I don’t see it, nor do I feel it, and Oscar drinks red!
Amen#Hare Krishna!

Paulo Rodrigues

Paulo, 62 years old Punk, blues, jazz, ska, reggae, anyway... rock 'n' roll is my daily vitamin that keeps me going, with some supplements like movies, theater, and reading as an essential tonic in this increasingly backward place (world)... ah ah ah

Pedro Duarte

I'm trying to be me...

Facana Liga (Dagger in the garter)

Daughter of Libia, she married her father at the age of 9, and stabbed him to death, organ by organ, thus acquiring a deep love for music. She pursued a career of endless boredom, also a mercenary, and as a Jesse Presley interpreter.

She joined the "Guru Paraplegico e os Iconoclastas", an unforgettable legendary band of the city of Porto, where she developed the talent for public communication. In the Congo militias, she lost a leg, rendering her speech incapable, but retained the ability to sing.

Then, she became a sexologist, a profession she still practices in her spare time, and through dagger attacks. Her ultimate dream is to meet Trump in person.