Sergio Sayeg (aka Sessa) is a São Paulo-born artist whose music has hints of Brazilian legends such as Erasmo Carlos and João Donato as well as the roots reggae of Jamaica’s Johnny Clarke.

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.

São Paulo-born, at-home-everywhere, Sessa conceived of his new album as a bridge to connect the earthy and astral realms of music: “Estrela Acesa comes to remind people of how music grounds our existence in a meaningful way, with its potential to give roots to the divine in a modern world lacking in symbolic weight,” Sessa says. “Connections with the cosmos, gods, nature …in many cultures that means a relationship with music. I think life can be fulfilling and meaningful and music is one of those experiences.”

Sensuous joy courses through the twelve songs of Estrela Acesa. It is evident in the title itself, but also in the seductive sway and hushed poetry of Sessa’s music. It’s all right there in the concise two minutes of Gostar do Mundo (Taste for the World), the opening number. “I felt like I was watching behind palm fronds,” he says of that song and the lovers it chronicles. “Its elements play with the feeling of tension sometimes associated with Brazilian music: tropical sunny light and good vibes. But there’s also the very impossibility of sustaining that: the world in a pandemic, a fascist president… It’s still about desire and erotic experiences, but also about the end of the world.” Brazilian in feel, with hints of Erasmo Carlos and João Donato – but Sessa says the biggest influence on the rhythm was the roots reggae of Johnny Clarke.