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Sergio Sayeg (aka Sessa) has always been entranced by what he calls “the mess” of music: the accidental, tortuous nature of it, a path on which musicians and audiences alike can attain a higher purpose. A love supreme, if you will. While Sessa’s 2019 debut Grandeza explored the corporeal pleasures and gentle drunkenness of being in love, his new album, Estrela Acesa (which translates as Burning Star), gazes up to the heavens and ponders love both sensuous and spiritual, in the throes of its resultant hangover.

Sessa is fascinated by “the mess” of music, “the crooked translations that music gets when it travels.” A cultural cannibal like the iconic Brazilian Tropicalistas from the late sixties, Sessa unapologetically and seamlessly mashes musical references, from rock to jazz to samba and soul.

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