Unlike Tom Jobim’s, Sessa’s songs are sung in Portuguese, with visceral, sensual lyrics and melodic flourishes. However, the music gets a deliberate minimalist treatment rarely found in contemporary Brazilian music, more reminiscent of Leonard Cohen’s bareness.
Sessa, the São Paulo musician known for his enchanting 2019 debut album ‘Grandeza,’ returns with an expansive collection of songs built with reverence for the deep historical traditions of Brazilian music, now adorned with elegant strings, cascades of hypnotic rhythm, draped with his graceful backing choir. Whereas ‘Grandeza’ was about the softness of the human body and the drunkenness of being in love, ‘Estrela Acesa’ is about love’s fragility and the hangover of it all.
