By AIMSEL L. PONTI

August 7, 2008: My knowledge of the Russian language is at best limited to hearing it spoken in “The Hunt for Red October,” “No Way Out” and of course, “White Nights.” Musically speaking, however, I’ve been recently schooled in the music of the late Siberian punk-folk singer Yanka Dyagileva. OK, so hold that thought for a moment.

Musician Alina Simone was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, and arrived in the U.S. as the young daughter of political refugees after her father refused recruitment into the KGB. I am not making this up; we already know truth is far more interesting than fiction.

She was raised in Massachusetts, went to art school in Boston and then relocated to Austin, Texas. She began singing in public, and in 2005, her debut EP “Prettier in the Dark” was released, followed by the full-length “Placelessness” last year.

Simone’s got a chilling, ethereal voice, and you can’t slap a folk label on her, because her fine-spun instrumentation smartly yet sparsely colors way outside those lines. Her new record, “Everyone Is Crying Out to Me, Beware,” is where cult figure Dyagileva comes in.

The “Everyone” record is all Dyagileva songs that Simone has carefully resurrected. Dyagileva never released any of her music commercially before her death at age 24 in 1991, but cassette recordings made their way into enough people’s hands that she’s been immortalized.

Simone became a fan in 2001 when some Russian street performers she met at Brighton Beach made her a mixed tape of Dyagileva songs, and the obsession was born. Since then, Simone has spent much of each year living and working in Siberia, including Dyagileva’s home city of Novosibirsk.

The “Everyone” record is sung entirely in Russian, and its arrangements of trumpet, cello and guitars is mesmerizing. I have no idea what she’s singing about, but the songs are entrancing, and I can’t wait to hear them live.