Say hello to Saidêra, a trio comprised of a couple longtime L.A./NYC pals, Mike “Le Chev” Cheever (Crush Club) and Alex Pasternak (Lemonade), and Rio de Janeiro native and samba school intérprete Vadinho Freire (Estação Primeira de Mangueira). The project began in 2014, when Alex DJ’d a house party in Santa Teresa, a hilly neighborhood of Rio. Vadinho grabbed the mic, unsolicited, and, touched by a force supernatural, let loose, overwhelming the crowd with his croons, all at once husky and rough, olive-oil smooth and serene. Moved by the serendipity that brought them together, they decided to hit the studio, adding Cheever as a chemical X to bring it all together along the way, and see how their shared vibe presented itself there. Their first record, "Deixa Tudo Fluir," is the first taste of what the subsequent six years of work yielded. Some of it was done digitally, but much of it was done in recording spaces throughout Brazil; many frequent flyer miles were accrued and spent. Saidera’s sound meets somewhere between their home countries while also exploring other realms: the songs are structured around samba rhythms and tropes, and the crackly yet smooth Portuguese vocals reinforce Brazil as the place of origin. But the instrumentals articulate a more complicated tale: a splash of sunshiny, beach-lounge, a cool breeze of crystalline synth work, and a slice of buttery Balearic chill-out (“Bahiaric”—Bahia Balearic—as we call it).