Mexican Summer & Anthology

Estrela Acesa: Demos & Alternates EP is a unique window into the songwriting process of Sessa's 2022 record, Estrela Acesa. Joining Sessa on a journey that gently reaches out in the dark for the layers that would go on to form the record, the listener can detect the foundational ideas (roughly put together through percussion loops, midi strings and piano harmonies) that were to become the orchestrations, the songwriting itself, the singing: The very first pleasures of seeing the ideas surface into something palpable.

Ranging from 2020 to 2021, the demos explore different recording processes via cassette, computers, phones and tape machines that flourished in makeshift studios in Sessa's home country of Brazil via Downtown São Paulo, Gonçalves, Ilhabela then stretching over to the US in Jackson Heights, Upstate New York and Jersey City. The finished work puts a peaceful end to an erratic search for something, and blurs all that actually happened, giving the EP a beautiful opportunity to look back at the process.