Sergio Sayeg (aka Sessa) is an artist who travels through distances and circumstances with his music. Coming from São Paulo his first pull was towards the psychedelic pop-toned Tropicalia mash-up of Garotas Suecas, a band he guitared and sang with until his family moved to New York. Sessa then made the most of the Big Apple, jobbing at the crate diggers’ paradise, Tropicália in Furs record store, playing in rock and funk bands, plus working with NY guitar legend Yonotan Gat.
The sounds of Brazil have always been his beacon though and his albums to date have mapped a journey informed by his Nascimento/Erasmo Carlos roots and his drift back to São Paulo. ‘Grandeza’, his 2019 debut, was introspective and earthy, acoustic songs for guitar with intricate smatters of percussion and loose brass. Three years later saw Sessa stretching out with the sultry and succulent ‘Estrela Acesa’, all cosmic haziness wrapped in the soft power of relaxed bossa-funk and swirling orchestration. It marked a highpoint amongst the rising new wave of MPB and its widening international reach.
Now comes Sessa album three ‘Pequena Vertigem de Amor’, via New York’s Mexican Summer label with confirmation that Sergio Sayeg is pushing forward with a Tom Zé singularity. It’s a set where he uncaps plenty of that illusive moodiness and uncanny magic but with a more focused intent. Sessa has said that the new songs “are a mix of personal chronicles and quiet meditations about life in the face of personal change, of experiencing something so big that you realize your insignificant size in space and time.” That “personal change” is becoming a father and his music coming alongside his day to day rather than absorbing his time completely.
So with ‘Pequena Vertigem de Amor’ we have a collection of songs that sound more real and spontaneous. His laid back, luscious soundscape may be less refined even a bit more frazzled but still his quirky perspective and playful reactions remain intact. For the title track (well almost) which ushers you into the album, Sessa sings about his “Little love vertigo” (‘Pequena Vertigem de Amor’), that dizziness of devotion that new parenthood brings with a cool, dreamy acceptance. The funk is relaxed, almost sleepy with a burbling bass line, cooing backing vocals and curdling keys, but given some Arthur Verocai sparkle by gently quivering strings. It’s a song which simply slides in between your ears and cuddles up warmly. More sprightly fun comes with the bouncy Dodói, where a pattering bass and drum pattern, ruffling guitar swing and flighty orchestration make for some gentle rough and tumble.
Perhaps its Vale a Pena (tr.“It’s Worth It”) which reflects the joys, complications and compensations of Sessa’s new life as a parent most strikingly. An early hours rhythmic sway, rippling bass, light guitar strums and a refreshingly subtle piano hook set the song’s tone. Sessa’s understated tenor is perfect, sometimes a whisper sometimes weary but always sensitive, tracing new emotions with the swooning strings and hugging sax fills. There are words of simple fulfilment here which retain their impact even in translation: “it’s afterhours in my heart/ first light breaks through darkness/ It’s worth it/ living is worth it”.
To help him articulate these new deeper feelings, it’s significant that Sessa has kept together many of the key personnel that made ‘Estrela Acesa’ such a triumph. The core band of co-producer Biel Basile (drums/percussion) and Marcelo Cabral (bass) again deliver that characteristic “wonky funkiness” plus Simon Hanes and Alex Chamuk conjure up their empathic arrangements. The Tropicalian chorale of vocalists Cecília Góes, Lau Ra, Ina and Paloma Mecozzi, so crucial to the ring of Sessa music, also return to bring their own glimmers and chinks of lightness.
This doesn’t mean that with ‘Pequena Vertigem de Amor’ the overall sound of this latest album hasn’t moved on or shifted. So rich were the musical relationships between these players that they were bound to yield yet more exquisite music. What drawing on the established Sessa ensemble brings is continuity as well as a seamless response to the challenges of these new songs. Both the breezy samba of Planta Santa which introduces a new layer in Sessa’s sonic vista, some understated electric piano chimes, and the cinematic meets jazzy psychedelica of the instrumental Roupa dos Mortos, show the group’s telepathic grasp of exactly what’s needed.
Also more noticeable on ‘Pequena Vertigem de Amor’ is the paring back of the overall soundscape often leaving space for groove and thought. Take the funky bossa Nome De Deus, which tackles the big subject of godly reverence with the minimum of fuss, just rumbling bass and congas with the short sharp comment from Marcelo Maita’s montuno piano stabs. There’s even an avant twist with a skittering percussion break plus the surreal pairing of the clean trilling backing choir and Sessa’s spikey voice. It’s off-kilter but cleverly on point. The sensual Bicho Lento has that classic Gilberto Gil flow stoked within a Tim Maia soul funk framing. A hint of wah-wah breeze and some sympathetic flute harmonies are all that’s needed to complete the vibe.
Perhaps though it’s Gestos Naturais that shows most clearly how Sessa allows his music to open out on this album. The ticking drum machine welcomes in a soft rhumba and Filipe Nader’s lush sax song. The Góes/ Ra/Ina/ Mecozzi vocal chorus takes the lead here, Gal Costa silky and celestial with a rustle of percussion bringing some otherworldly levitation. There’s no rush, no clutter, no trickery, just pure expansive sonic fulfilment.
The profound Revolução Interior brings the musical and lyrical strands together for the album’s closing moments. It’s a swooning orchestral ballad exploring resolution and inner peace, all major chords, Sessa’s purring, thoughtful croon and a loving call – response with the choir as they repeat “viver não é mais que viver” (living’s nothing more than living) for the coda. By the close ‘Pequena Vertigem de Amor’ feels like an album that has reached completeness, it doesn’t fade or leave you drifting. Listening you can recognise that the recording shows Sessa finely honing his craft and in doing so revealing a songwriter and sound imaginer who is approaching some sort of artistic peak.
Get your copy of Pequena Vertigem de Amor by Sessa from your local record store or direct from Mexican Summer HERE
