"It is dangerously prophetic to point this out now, but it is highly likely that the immense prosperity of the past couple of years—observed in the most militant “do-it-yourself” branch of Portuguese music—will generate repercussions that, a decade from now, may materialize in anthologies of rarities and previously unreleased material accumulated over these abundant times. It is known that these people produce tirelessly, and that a series of valuable exercises remain floating and scattered across various CD-Rs, gradually increasing the number of ears attuned to them.

And where one reads “these people,” one could insert the names of those who have worked to establish self-sufficient models that shorten both the distance and the financial burden between the music creators and its eager listeners. In other words, spaces where music ceases to be a mere convenience and becomes a value shared and enjoyed in community—Merzbau, Test Tube, Searching, and Lovers & Lollypops, which here celebrates its first year of activity with the release of Um Ano de Bailarico."

Miguel Arsénio