Saturday, March 21 KALW-FM + Rickshaw Stop co-present SESSA with William Alexander 7 pm doors $22/25 all ages Sessa: Pequena Vertigem de Amor — the third full-length in Sergio Sayeg’s expanding catalogue as Sessa — is not just an evolution in the São Paulo artist’s sound; it is a transformation. Like a camera lens slowly zooming out, Sessa’s records reveal a progression from the private, carnal and earth-bound erotic desires probed on 2019’s Grandeza, to an exploration of the limits and possibilities in relationships between people in love on 2022’s Estrela Acesa. With Pequena Vertigem de Amor, which translates to “Lil’ Love Vertigo,” Sessa’s view turns upward, to the infinite sky, catching glimpses of universality in the intimacy of becoming a father. Sessa says these 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.” This new perspective and reality remade his personal life and his connection to music: “For the first time I saw music move from the center to the side of my life.” The radical reordering of priorities presented fresh opportunities in his music. “In an interesting way, music became more mixed with my life,” Sessa notes, as he found ways to conjure melodies, lyrics and inspiration from the daily rhythms of life. William Alexander is a Black-Okinawan music artist based in Brooklyn, NY. His thoughtful acoustic soul is at once timely, & timeless, a balm beckoning inward listening amongst a zeitgeist of excess. Although previous offerings maximized WA’s multi instrumental prowess in fully fleshed ‘band’ arrangements (WA recorded every instrument), the most recent era of WA’s artistry strips songs to their naked essence, revealing a voice, an intention, and realness, in all it’s pure imperfection. Referencing the otherworldly leanings of Jessica Pratt, and the distinctive originality of Jose Gonzalez’s nylon string guitar finger picking, William creates a new soul-folk sound that is all his own.