Beck lent him his songwriting. Sufjan Stevens covered his songs. James Blake, Bon Iver, Flume and Andrew Bird invited him onto their albums. And Solange Knowles, St. Vincent and Erykah Badu hang out with him: Moses Sumney is a powerful and fascinating magnet. The futuristic soulman’s aura was confirmed in 2017 on his debut album Aromanticism, an impeccable work of lustful, intelligent R&B carried by a gospel-soaked voice and a strong yet troubled personality. Underscoring the duality of his daily life and his struggles with schizophrenia, Moses Sumney sees double with Græ. He has created this ambitious second album (released in two parts, three months apart) by dipping his brush into a wide-ranging palette: soul, pop, jazz, rock, R&B, folk. Even the title - neither black nor white - amplifies the feeling of being in-between...
Now based in Asheville, North Carolina, the Californian (who lived in Accra, Ghana between the ages of 10 and 16) articulates ideas in two-headed sounds. His sexuality as his origins, his virility as his fragility, his falsetto as his hoarse voice, luxury as purity, acoustic guitar as synths, it’s all there. The first part is lyrical, grandiloquent and warm, bordering on baroque soul. The second is more peaceful and weightless. He flits from one thing to another with such ease that it’s never confusing or disorientating. As Sumney said in an interview, pop culture has made the patriarchy waver to the point that we forget masculinity is not necessarily a bad thing: Græ proves it in a whirlwind of eclecticism where his voice serves as a solid common thread. Like on Gagarin, where he revisits From Gagarins Point of View by E.S.T., the late Swedish jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson’s trio. Or when he invites Jill Scott to sing (recite) the intro to jill/jack. James Blake and Daniel Lopatin a.k.a. Oneohtrix Point Never appear in this vast symphony, one so rich that you hear something new each time you listen. It would be too simplistic to consider Græ the album of Prince 2.0, since he feeds on a thousand sounds. In this grey area, Moses Sumney already has his own crown. And his reign has only just begun... © Marc Zisman/Qobuz