Terra Livre’s Debut Álbum - “Seeds, Roots Flowers and Fruits” was released in early 2019, featuring Manu Chao among other distinguished guest artist collaborations.
This eclectic journey begins with World Music and carries on to a search to discover what sounds as “Earth Music”. The Portuguese group voices the emerging ecologic movement, a natural and spontaneous movement with no leaders or borders, that manifests itself locally on a planetary level. Their sound mixes simplicity with psychedelia, mestizo with mysticism, ecology and
activism, singing consciousness and diversity in one tone.
Everything starts from a seed. Or does it? A cycle doesn’t have a beginning or an end. It repeats itself, but never in the same way - It’s an infinite spiral.
“Seeds, Roots, Flowers and Fruits” is a homage to the natural cycles, to the four seasons and the four directions. The twelve songs are a representation of the twelve months in a year and the twelve zodiac signs through which the Earth travels since It was only a seedling planet. The influence of multicultural Lisbon is evident when you listen to a Jamaican Reggae with melodies that could be from either the Balkans, Ethiopia or Eritrea. Desert Blues with a taste of Indian Folk and American Funk, or even a Moroccan Gnawa with traits of the Portuguese song and Rock experimentalism. Each song is a unique experience, not giving away what genre the next track will be. There is consonance, however, in the purity of the message, the harmonious aesthetics and the respect for diversity itself. These are values that guide all the work, and the different styles are explored with the honesty of someone who has been to the roots to find the different elements that make up the whole. It is, at heart, an ancient Portuguese heritage: To contemplate the oceans not as a barrier but as a bridge that not only allows us to discover the other but, above all, to understand who we are.
In their debut, Terra Livre wanted to bring along people that are part of this movement(even if they might not know it). The outstanding Manu Chao dives into “Dança da Semente”, a hymn for Seed freedom. Silvério Pessoa, the pernambuco singer of the award-winning band “Cascabulho” and also enjoying a successful solo career, reinforces the universality of the song “Mãe Terra”. Together in this journey are also the Algerian singer - Nazim Lachachi, along with a horn section from Kumpania Algazarra - Francisco Amorim and Paul Robert, and percussionists from Terrakota - Nataniel Melo, Paulo das Cavernas and Márcio Pinto.
They met 10 years ago in the magical mountains of Sintra, where they founded “Terra Livre”, a communal land that works as an experimental and co-creation lab which allowed them to practice what they preach, be it through sustainable agriculture, natural building or the minimising of human ecological footprint.
Gonçalo Sarmento (Terrakota), Leo Marsh (Chapadux, Green Echo) and Rodrigo Cordomar (Green Echo), three singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists join forces with Adri Dias Pereira (Chapadux, Green Echo), a master in woodwinds and electrónics, and with a solid rhythm section composed by Pedro Pereira (Pás de Probleme, They Must be Crazy) and Tiago Santos (Opaz).

In a time when the planet’s resources are scarce, and the rivers and oceans are polluted to the point of having more plastic than fish, and with the forests disappearing at an unbelievable speed, the urgency of a paradigm shift and the love of music keeps the group united for a Free Earth - TERRA LIVRE.

Jéjé Coustik is following