The Album Leaf

Jimmy LaValle launched The Album Leaf as his personal outlet after forming the post-rock outfit Tristeza, with the San Diego songwriter beginning to lay down solo tracks twelve months later. Drawing from classical, jazz, and post-rock influences, he assembled his material through an eclectic process that incorporated ambient textures, field recordings, and broadcast snippets. His debut full-length, An Orchestrated Rise to Fall, documented this approach in 1999. An EP titled In an Off White Room came next, setting the stage for the March 2001 release of One Day I’ll Be on Time on Tiger Style. Those releases elevated the project’s visibility, leading LaValle to support Sigur Rós on their inaugural American tour later that year. While preparing his third album he gained access to Sigur Rós’ Icelandic facility and enlisted several band members for contributions, resulting in In a Safe Place, which Sub Pop issued in June 2004.

The Seal Beach EP, first released in Spain during 2003, reached American listeners in early 2005, followed by Into the Blue Again in September 2006. Throughout the rest of the decade The Album Leaf maintained an intermittent touring schedule that spanned several continents and included a 2008 support slot for Devendra Banhart at the Hollywood Bowl. LaValle’s fifth album, A Chorus of Storytellers, arrived two years later and marked the first time the material was tracked with a complete live ensemble and included vocals on multiple songs. After the subsequent tour cycle the group fell silent for several years while LaValle concentrated on film composition. The project reemerged in 2016 with Between Waves, its sixth album, which appeared on the extreme-metal imprint Relapse—an unexpected alliance that left the band’s established sound largely intact.