Estrela Acesa

Estrela Acesa (Burning Star), is Sessa’s second full-length project and the first album out on Mexican Summer. The São Paulo-born singer explores sounds of tropicália, samba, and bossa with hints of spiritual jazz across 12 tracks of dreamlike, echoing grooves that recall parts of Devendra Banhart’s Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon in mood and palette of timbres.

The album’s lead single, ‘Canção da Cura’ (Song of Healing), paired with a video from multimedia artist Gabriel Rolim (aka Rollinos), sums up the vibe of the album nicely. Led by clicks and brushes on the drums, plucked double bass and nylon guitar with a bossa-esque groove, the sparse framework leaves space for Sessa’s delicate, textured voice to float over dreamy backing vocals. The lyrics speak of an invented ritual to cure the souls of the heartbroken through music. More developed, celestial arrangements can be heard on tracks like ‘Irmão de Nuvem’ (Brother of Cloud), where whirling strings take the lead, with Sessa and ever-present angelic backing vocals providing support to gentle harmonic progressions. An exceptionally strong follow-up to his first album, released in 2019, Grandeza. A must-have for fans of the old-school Brazilian sound looking to update their collection.