The members of the Russian band Auktyon have never lost sight of their musical mission since forming during the 1980s in the former Soviet Union.

"Twenty years ago, we just liked to play very strange rock 'n' roll music and play it very loudly and very energetically," says saxophone player Nikolai Rubanov, speaking via phone en route to a gig in Philadelphia. "Today, we still like to play the strange rock 'n' roll music very loudly and energetically, but now we do it with a musical wisdom and musical consciousness we did not have as young musicians. It's that now we know so much more about music."

The wild, crazy and wise guys from St. Petersburg will share their musical wisdom Sunday night at the Rickshaw Stop with an evening of Russian glasnost bohemian rock.

The band's latest album, "Girls Sing," is a lesson in true art rock that hasn't been taught through music since the likes of Talking Heads were lecturing. "Girls Sing" has credits that feature more guest musicians (12) than songs (10).

Instrumentwise, the ingredients include (but certainly are not limited to) generous helpings of organ, clarinet, saxophone, Shakuhachi flute, drums, bass, vocals and a touch of trumpet. Good luck trying to find the right genre to classify Auktyon, presuming "Incredibly Cool" isn't already an iTunes category.

One critic narrowed down the Auktyon (pronounced as "auction") sound to somewhere between "tight, jazzy arrangements of Charles Mingus and Radiohead 'Kid A' style." The comparison seems right and wrong at the same time.

"I have no idea how to describe our music," says Rubanov, who joined the band about 1983, when Auktyon solidified its traditional lineup. "To tell you the truth, I don't want to know how to explain it. I know that I understand it. And I think many others understand our music too."

Though they never intended it, Auktyon became a political soundtrack for many fans growing up under the Communist regime and eager for the audacious sounds of "unapproved" artists.

"We try to avoid as much as possible the political discussion. But we cannot escape it," says Rubanov, referring to the collapse of the Soviet Union. "All these changes in our country are reflected in our music. But it is not direct. It's not a political report. It's just our emotional reaction on everything going on in the world."

While an Auktyon gig has the unpredictability of improvisation, one thing that never changes when it tours the United States is the need for a former comrade to come up to the band and share thoughts of the old country.

"Yes. Every concert we ever play in the U.S.A., the people who left Russia so many years ago want to share their impressions," says a flattered Rubanov. "It's a mostly nostalgic mood. They remember a different Russia. They remember our different records."

But the feelings from new Auktyon songs are the same.

-- by Delfín Vigil