The Album Leaf / A Chorus of Storytellers - SP805

A Chorus of Storytellers was recorded by Ryan Hadlock in the frosty month of February 2009 at Bear Creek Studio just outside of Seattle. It was mixed in the decidedly warmer month of June in Reykjavik, Iceland by Birgir Jon Birgisson. Those paying attention will notice that this is nearly the same way their last album Into the Blue Again was recorded. There is, however, one fundamental difference between this and every other album The Album Leaf has ever recorded. For the first time in five albums, The Album Leaf recorded as a whole band. In the past, almost every instrument was performed by principal songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle. This time the whole band was invited to participate and the result is their best record yet.

If you pre-order A Chorus of Storytellers, you’ll receive The Enchanted Hill, a 2007 EP/tour Video from The Album Leaf. This is a while supplies last sort of thing, so this deal is limited to the first two hundred orders.

Released: February 2, 2010

The Album Leaf / Into The Blue Again - SP708

In the wake of a solid 18 months spent touring in support of 2004’s In a Safe Place, The Album Leaf’s Jimmy LaValle sequestered himself for six months in his San Diego house solely to write for his next record. For LaValle—whose wildly varied experience includes stints with instrumental artisans Tristeza, post-hardcore spastics the Locust, contorted punk-funk ritualists GoGoGo Airheart, shadowy conjurers The Black Heart Procession and Iceland’s celestial menagerie Sigur Ros—such a surfeit of time was an unprecedented luxury. The upshot of this well-earned downtime is his fourth full-length, Into the Blue Again. Recorded in December 2005 at Bear Creek Studio, a converted turn-of-the-century barn outside of Seattle, Into the Blue Again sees a return to The Album Leaf’s conception with LaValle handling the bulk of the vocal and instrumental duties. After tracking at Bear Creek, LaValle then took the concentric billows of feathered keyboards, filmy strings and chiseled drums to Iceland for three weeks of mixing to tape to maintain Brian Eno-informed translucence. Having shared so much time and space with others on the road, LaValle proves with the personally charged Into the Blue Again that The Album Leaf resonates most profoundly when he goes it alone.

Released: 2006-11-08 (CD), 2006-11-08 (LP), 2006-09-12 (MP3s)

The Album Leaf / An Orchestrated Rise to Fall - MF005

Track Listing:
1. Wander
2. An Interview
3. Lounge Act
4. September Song
5. We Once Were (One)
6. This River Deep
7. Airplane
8. A Short Story
9. We Once Were (Two)
10. Lounge Act (Two)

The Album Leaf / One Day I'll be on Time - TS011

Anyone who’s been blindfolded and left to navigate a space by touch rather than sight will already have at least a passing familiarity with the work of the Album Leaf, solo project of über-instrumentalist Jimmy Lavalle. With the Album Leaf, Lavalle moves from the punk rock of his earlier bands, Swing Kids and the Locust, to the post-rock purveyed by his other current band, Tristeza. Using the typical tools of his kinder, gentler trade—tasteful percussion, gossamer guitar, and minimal electronics—he creates new forms and structures in his entirely instrumental songs, and makes listening a synesthetic experience. Songs like the aptly titled “Story Board,” textured with field recordings of wind and traffic, as well as a conversation between Lavalle and sometimes-engineer Rafter Roberts, conjure different images in a dreamy mental movie. But it’s songs like “Asleep,” which convey movement as realistically as a gentle shove, that really show off Lavalle’s songwriting powers. In One Day I’ll Be on Time, open-minded fans of jazz, electronic, indie rock, and hardcore can find something that will almost literally reach out and touch them.

Released: May 22, 2001

The Album Leaf / In a Safe Place - SP640

Jimmy LaValle, perhaps known best for his work in the contemplative dream-rock outfit Tristeza and San Diego’s The Black Heart Procession, began releasing delicate, progressive instrumental work as The Album Leaf in 1999(the name comes from a Chopin piece). After years of labor-intensive touring and tinkering with complex tracks in his cramped bedroom studio, LaValle was repeatedly offered a rare invite from Icelandic phenoms Sigur Ros and Mum to record his newest solo opus in their Mosfellsbaer studio. He finally accepted and flew overseas to compose and record “In A Safe Place.” With the addition of vocals (absent from previous Album Leaf releases) from The Black Heart Procession’s Pall Jenkins, Sigur Ros’ Jon Thor Birgisson, and LaValle himself, the songs on the new record are chillingly delicate and more pop-based than ever before. “In A Safe Place” masterfully negotiates the spaces between minimal electronica and neo-instrument rock.

Released: June 22, 2004