Luka Kuplowsky How Can I Possibly Sleep When There Is Music

Luka Kuplowsky’s voice is a paradox — at times it sounds too hushed to be captured, as if it’s going to disappear like smoke, then in the next instant it's as big as the sky. It is a voice that bends the ear to listen and whose music carves out a unique space for poetic language and improvisatory playfulness. In the four years following 2020’s Stardust, a rich otherworldly album of pop and jazz romanticism, Kuplowsky has quietly expanded the scope of his creativity through a series of singles and collaborations that explore ambient electronic, avant-pop, and psychedelic tropicalia.

On his new double LP "How Can I Possibly Sleep When There Is Music", Kuplowsky extends his interest with improvisational ensembles and live recording, as its seven-piece band (Alex Lukashevsky, Anh Phung, Evan Cartwright, Felicity Williams, Josh Cole and Phillipe Melanson) craft a singular sound of spaciousness, experimentation and unbridled expressiveness that traverses traditions of jazz, folk and blues. Conceived as a record of adaptations and responses “to a millennia of poetry”, the album draws together the poetry of Ryōkan Taigu, Bohdan Ihor Antonych, Maria Rainer Rilke, Yosana Akiko, Du Fu, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, W.W.E Ross, Li Bai, and La Fontaine, placing them within a dynamic environment of ecstatic and imaginative expression. Produced by the luminary Toronto producer/songwriter Sandro Perri, the new LP enfolds international literary and music influences alongside hyper-local Toronto touchstones into a beautiful sprawling record of meditative and free-wheeling sonic adventurism.

In his hometown of Toronto, Kuplowsky remains an active member of jazz and songwriting communities, regularly organizing and performing with the eclectic tribute group The Holy Oak Family Singers and collaborating with Ian Daniel Kehoe in their avant-pop duo Ingredient.