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Sean Haefeli a native of Chicago is an artist that is focused, structured and uncompromising. His style inflicts personality, charisma, emotion, character and most of all originality. By no means a traditional artist, Haefeli risks his soul if only to keep the soul and passion in his music. Think Seal and Last poets mixed in with Sly and the Family Stone and you have one hell of an artist that simply “brings it” while never compromising his integrity. This CD is not for the traditional “music head” but more for the “escape artist” who wants to lavish themselves in pure unadulterated blues and soul.

Natural Hunger says it all in its title. With its ear tingling verses Sean simply draws you in and bares his soul never once leaving you astray. What a beautiful inside view into a man who wants only to take you where he’s been and how he’s living. This is a rare find and definitely a keeper in my eyes. Sean Haefeli is an artist for all seasons.

-Black Girls Rule! Magazine

Sean Haefeli’s independently released four-song EP, Sound Strategy, portrays a skilled and passionate musician who strives to put his best foot forward using nothing more or less than he’s always known to be true to his core being. His sound is founded in the jazz he spent his childhood years exposed to, and rounded out by hints of hip-hop, soul, groove, and electronic that defined the culture of his generation. His belief in open sincerity comes across in his music, lyrics, and the personal character drawn from each song.

Mellow pianos, horns, and bass maintain an easy feel throughout the CD. Yet as a testament to the urbanism of Haefili’s generation, the vocals are extremely rhythmic (a distraction from his lack of pure singing ability) and decidedly hip-hop, laced with an underlying degree of forwardness and aggression.

Although Haefeli describes his album as a “fusion of jazz, soul, hip-hop, and modern groove” the sound is mainly grounded in jazz, the likes of which his father played professionally and Sean himself was educated formerly. It’s as if Haefeli purposely avoids venturing into anything too modern or commercial, instead sticking to the roots he knows for sure make him content. The drums and bass parlay into deeper grooves and hip-hop style rhythms on occasion, but mostly remain true to his musical background.

The final track, Balance, is the greatest exception, best described as a mish-mash of styles on every level. Every instrument as it is played in the song, from the drums to the horns to the vocals would fit into a jazz or soul piece as easily it would a rap song.

Much like Sean portrays himself, the album makes the best of what jazz and its adjacent genres have to offer. The result should be equally familiar to yesteryear’s jazz enthusiasts and today’s hip-hop, spoken word, soul, and new groove fans.

- Nokware Knight, Nu Soul Magazine

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