‘It is a song whose music is part of the recent tradition of Lisbon’s neighbourhood-oriented popular march and whose lyrics are playfully constructed through the evocation of various places and neighbourhoods in the city.’ If you are familiar with José Mário Branco’s work, you will know that we are talking about Qual é a tua, ó meu? (what’s your deal, man?, very loosely translated), a composition that lends its name to IN2PAST’s 2nd Field Trip and which was discussed by CESEM – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researcher Manuel Pedro Ferreira last Thursday, December 12th, at A Padaria do Povo, in Lisbon, which hosted the initiative.

Our session of music listening with commentary brought nine songs to this historic place of Lisbon’s associative and co-operative life, discussed by eight IN2PAST researchers, with different authors, stories and genres, with the aim of providing all the participants with an exploration of the relationships between sounds and the territories in which they were produced or which they occupy. The following morning, we visited the Centro de Estudos e Documentação José Mário Branco – Música e Liberdade (José Mário Branco Research and Documentation Centre – Music and Freedom), or CEDJMB-ML, a collaboration between CESEM and INET-md, located at NOVA FCSH.

And because Qual é a tua, ó meu? is also a libel against dictators’, Manuel Pedro Ferreira, who was part of the choir that recorded it in the studio, also performed his own piece Ai tiranos! (oh tyrants!), based on a biblical text (Micah 2-4), the last song he shared with José Mário Branco, with whom he had a long personal relationship.

Lo Pingacho, a traditional sung dance from the Miranda do Douro region, in northeastern Portugal, was the choice of Vanda de Sá, who presented the album Descantes e Cantaréus at A Padaria do Povo, to recall Grupo Almanaque, of which she was a member, ‘and which did a lot of work collecting and interpreting traditional Portuguese music, especially in the 1980s’.

‘Like many cultural expressions from cross-border areas, this sung dance, part of the cultural heritage of the Miranda do Douro region, reflects influences shared between Portugal and Spain,’ explains the CESEM – University of Évora / IN2PAST researcher, recalling that Lo Pingacho crosses the border and is danced at the frontier between Spain and Portugal, ’using the mirandês [Portugal’s second official language] as an expression of linguistic resistance, but also musical.’ A space of borders ‘that are constantly crossed, on a daily basis, inadvertently, distractedly…’, she adds.

‘A particular social and historical experience of a territory: the experience of road workers in the interior of the island of Santiago’, in Cape Verde, is what Strada communicates, says Rui Cidra, who chose the song by Tcheka (Manuel Lopes Andrade), with the collaboration of Mário Laginha, for our guided music listening session. ‘Although it’s called Strada (Road), it’s not a song about mobility,’ says the IHC – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researcher: ’it’s about a certain immobility, it’s about living in an impasse, being stuck in a given territory, for reasons to do with poverty.’

Drift Furioso (furious drift), by DJ Marfox, ‘is a pioneering testimony to the self-representation of the Portuguese black community, which hasn’t found expression in political and cultural institutions, but has found in music a space for representation and expression on its own terms’, states João Mineiro, who selected this song, included in the compilation DJs Di Guetto (2006), by Marfox, N.K., Jesse, Fofuxo and Pausas.

‘An unexpected fusion of kuduro, funaná, tarraxo, techno and afro-house, this album became a landmark in music made in Portugal, crossing African rhythms with European and global Afro-diasporic electronics,’ explains the CRIA – Iscte / IN2PAST researcher, adding that ’this sound fusion gave rise to a unique musical identity, reflecting the encounter of different urban, historical and cultural geographies.’

‘From Portela to Quinta do Mocho, from Linha de Sintra to Margem Sul, the music translates the subjective experience of the black and Afro-descendant community on the outskirts of Lisbon, affirming a syncretic and plural identity,’ observes João Mineiro, while at the same time subverting the rules of the musical field: ’far from the centres of cultural production, and not dependent on publishers, curators, journalists and gatekeepers, these artists have assumed that everyone can make music.’