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Hanna Sikasa – Sequel

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Hanna Sikasa - Sequel

Hanna Sikasa - Sequel
4.2

Rating

 4.2/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Beautiful blending of jazz, soul and pop elements
  • Very nice arrangement
  • Lovely voice

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Comparably weaker beginning

Why not doing some jazz–pop in summer? Quite early before the release, I had the opportunity to listen to Sequel by the German artist Hanna Sikasa. I just loved the gentle compositions and felt they they are a nice feature for my Flyctory.com album reviews as of 4th August 2023.

 

Hanna Sikasa – About The Artist(s)

Hanna Sikasa is as well the the name of the artist as the name of her band. Based in Nuremberg, Sikasa has Swiss and Kenyan decent. Sequel is something like the sequel to her sophomore album Origin, which she released in 2019. She grew up in Augsburg, but later moved to Nuremberg to study jazz. Even though she is appreciating the “pure” jazz sound as well, she rather opted to mix soul and R&B elements to her music.

 

Hanna Sikasa – Sequel – Track by Track

The eight song album lasts 35 minutes.

1. Stars are still

Stars are still is indeed a slow start into the Sequel. It takes some two minutes before you get any feeling that this song could have a some jazz or pop elements. And even in the middle, it rather feels like a majestic intro than a full song. The end of the song then creates a stronger profile.

2. Two

Two is the first song which spreads the magic which finally persuaded me to share this album with you. On the instrumental side, Sikasa combines a lot of elements like a very jazzy drum style with sterling violin sounds and some nice brass sections. Her vocals rather feel soulful. The Afro-German artist is beautifully balancing these ingredients to a nice musical listen.

3. Mess

By having an additional vocalist, some parts of Mess feel more pop-ish than Two. However, there are also parts, which feel more complex. The suddenly incepting bridge rather feels like world music. Overall, this leads to a rather demanding listen.

4. Beautiful Jungle

The song has a clear jazz base, but in contrast to the song before, it is rather fluent and does not come with too many breaks. This also includes a very gentle, melodic vocal performance, which I absolutely enjoy while listening to the album. This trip to the jungle is beautiful, indeed.

5. Gonna let go

The fifth song is again balancing between soul and jazz. Gonna let go thereby is a rather slow, but also very groovy and thus intense listen. The instruments are not as much in focus as in other songs. I love that type of song on this album.

6. Bird

This part of the album is the most beautiful one. Bird is a narrative, very gentle song. A calm, almost lounge-alike listen, coming with the characteristic jazz drumming in the background and some gentle strings and brass sounds. Nice one.

7. Through the Clouds

With 2:39 minutes, Through the Clouds is the shortest song of the album. The song is an instrumental, driven by the string instruments

8. Up in the Air

The closing song is the lovely ballad Up In The Air. The song is a really lovely, gentle and very emotional finale, which stays in your mind even afetr the song has faded out.

 

 

Hanna Sikasa – Sequel – Spotify

Here is Sequel on Spotify:

 

Hanna Sikasa – Sequel – My View

The album starts kind of slow, but then comes with a couple of really nice highlights. Hanna’s voice, her characteristic style of doing music create a great sound. It is just a set of eight songs, but these leave a mark. Hope there will be a sequel of the Sequel very soon.

Favorite Song: Bird

 

Jazz on Flyctory.com

Here are all postings on Flyctory.com related to Jazz:

 

Flyctory.com about Nuremberg

Here are all my postings related to Nuremberg (or Nürnberg) in Germany:

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