Alex Lukashevsky: Resisting All Obstacles

Enlarge this image

There are songs that soothe and songs that jostle. Alex Lukashevsky's "Adamant Wall" is one of the latter. courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption

courtesy of the artist

There are songs that soothe and songs that jostle. Alex Lukashevsky's "Adamant Wall" is one of the latter.

courtesy of the artist

There are songs that soothe and songs that jostle; this is one of the latter. Sounding at times like a calypso band inspired by the tuneful free jazz of Albert Ayler, "Adamant Wall" is a rickety jalopy of a song that careens down a strangely controlled path. At the wheel is songwriter and performer Alex Lukashevsky.

Lukashevsky was born in the Soviet Union, and his family moved to Canada when he was 10. Now based in Toronto, Lukashevsky is a local hero to the dynamic music scene there, which includes Broken Social Scene and Owen Pallett -- who, as Final Fantasy, orchestrated and recorded Plays to Please, a 2008 EP of his Lukashevsky covers.

With his solo music, and with the currently dormant band Deep Dark United, Lukashevsky has developed a one-of-a-kind approach to song, utilizing his unusual sense of melody and structure, his playful fluency on the guitar and his eloquently raspy voice.

"Adamant Wall" is from Lukashevsky's new album, Prints of Darkness. Each song on the disc is different, but they all share the same band -- guitar, double bass, violin, flute, trumpet -- and all showcase Lukashevsky's tendency to mess around with sounds in the mix.

The phrase "adamant wall" dates back at least to the 19th century, used in both poetry and politics. It's the resistant obstacle, or the insistent tradition -- something Lukashevsky's songs seem quite unburdened by in their loose, vivacious splendor.

Download an hour-long session with Alex Lukashevsky for the WNYC show Spinning on Air.