"Seiva was formed by Joana Negrão (voice, gaitas portuguesas, adufe frame drum, pandeireta) and Vasco Ribeiro Casais (braguesa guitar, cavaquinho, gaitas portuguesas, adufe), veterans of the long-lived but now-defunct neo-trad-alt-rock ensemble Dazkarieh ... [They aspire] to situate Portuguese folk idioms in a contemporary, cosmopolitan domain, drawing on national roots while embracing the dynamic inevitability of musical change and crossfertilisation ... Seiva is the first to declare its project to be anything but fado, and listeners will detect a certain Celtic stylistic, rhythmic, and tonal affinity in the music's communal orientation, modal predilections, pipes, and percussion. Vocal creativity and poetic flair (Negrão has the gift) are enduring values in Portuguese oral tradition, so for the unschooled listener it's unfortunate that the song texts are not included in the notes ... Listeners conditioned to equate Portugal exclusively with fado will find compelling evidencetothe contrary in the resplendent musical heartbeat that is Seiva".
