Ada Lea – one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden

There’s something lasting about the atmospheric nature of Alexandra Levy's music as Ada Lea; its capacity to reach around the edges of an empty room, and equal ability to cut through the sound of life bustling in the background lends it a warm, encompassing quality. With a fuller and more studio defined sound than 2019’s what we say in private, it almost comes as a surprise that one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden captures this same authentic vibrancy of life. 

Its fluttering, non-linear narrative weaves together a number of vignettes, emulating a 'very Proustian passage of time', as Levy sings on saltspring. In response, the record’s musicality flutters accordingly. Like a changing of seasons, one hand... moves between both lo-fi and hi-fi sounds, shifting from finger-picked folk to bedroom pop: saltspring sits in a summer daze; writer in ny is soft and hopeful; hurt is a wintery nightdrive; damn climbs and climbs until it spirals out in a feverish end. 

Painting a portrait of life in Montreal, one hand... is narrated as much by hurt as it is by hope, and demonstrates Levy’s ability to develop her artistry without letting go of the colouring of sound that renders her music hers.  

Listen to: hurt, writer in ny