On his third full-length release since 2008, Alfonso Velez began by tracking the songs for “Russian Bear” in a 3000 square-foot Middle-Eastern dance hall in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, where he lives in an apartment adjacent to the space. “There’s a Cat Stevens vibe on this record,” said Velez, “there’s great and triumphant celebration and there’s also the the sadness only a funeral can bring on.” “Russian Bear,” is a celebration of love and life lost in the tumult of 2009. The track “Teddy” prays for a dying relative while “Love for Life” conjures up the restlessness of youth in a timeless chorus that defines New York night life: I’ve got love for life, it’s easy I’m living every night, like it’s my last. With vocal narration that rivals Paul Simon’s and string arrangements that pay tribute to the brute romanticism of Serge Gainsbourg, the 28-year-old sheds the skin of a typical singer-songwriter, revealing himself to be a recording artist. “Words” throttles in an electric sound with an enormous rhythmic hook and “Funny” steals the listener on a dream trip out past the stratosphere: We’re leaving all you love, Behind here, You must be funny, I guess I’m funny. Composed on a pulsing nylon string guitar given to him in Barcelona by his father on New Year’s Day 1993, the new album cannot and should not be categorized into a single genre. For nine months Velez and engineer Alex DeTurk worked to complete nine songs that abound with swelling string sections by Juilliard students, cosmic electric guitar echoes and the honky-tonk only a church piano can bestow. Percussionist Jerry Busher of Fugazi, a close friend of Velez’s from the Washington, D.C. music circuit, tracked additional drums while Jairo Zavala, of Calexico fame, amazed on piano and guitar. Velez recently toured Ireland with the Guggenheim Grotto (UFO), an Irish duo whose airy vocals are also featured on the album. Alfonso’s music is known in cities like Paris, Montreal and Dublin as well as Washington, D.C., where he performs for crowds of 1,500 seats or more. He has spent most his life traveling the globe and has lived in Buenos Aires and Mexico City — and spent part of his childhood in Moscow in the early 90’s, during Russia’s attempted democratization. In 1996, he moved to a small town in New Jersey where his schoolmates teased him with the nickname, “Russian Bear.”