Brazilian musician and singer Lucas Santtana added his seventh album to his catalogue this week with O céu é velho há muito tempo via Nø Førmat!. It’s a haunting and dreamy listen and has the politics of his homeland and the anxiety of global issues influencing his creative process. “We’re living in a time in which everybody is talking loud,” he observes. “I thought the time had come to whisper into people’s ears.”

Santtana’s previous albums have fused a rich variety of rhythms and cultures – traversing native cornerstones like Tropicalia and bossa with elements of electronica and hip hop. But this third release for the French label – also home to the likes of Oumou Sangaré and Mélissa Laveaux, and follow up up to 2017’s Modo Avião – is stripped back to guitar and vocal, a barer aesthetic and a heartfelt vibration. At the album’s outset, Portal De Ativação (“activation Portugal”) makes clear the political theme with an ominous spoken word section: “Who wants to speak? Raise a hand / Who wants to listen? Raise a hand / Who wants to demonstrate? Well then get up on your feet / Who wants to understand?”