Jimmy LaValle has been making music as either the sole or lead member of The Album Leaf for a long time. The founding of the project goes back to the late 90’s when LaValle played in a variety of California post-genre bands and began developing the distinctive blend of synths, electronics, and Rhodes piano that would win fans over around the world with albums like One Day I’ll Be On Time (2001), Seal Beach (2003), and In a Safe Place (2004).
The albums may have become fewer and further between as LaValle established himself as a sought-after creator of music for film, television, & advertising, but read his bio and you’ll learn that music has remained a daily pursuit for him throughout the past two decades. Thanks to a routine that balances focused work with open-ended creativity, he has accumulated a “vast library of experiments” over the years with which he can tinker, refine, and build. It should come as no surprise then, that in the time since 2016’s Between the Waves, LaValle accumulated over 200 demos and ideas as possibilities for his seventh Album Leaf record. It is from these that a pattern finally began to emerge and coalesce into the newly released Future Falling.
LaValle sees the construction of album as less conventional than his past work, overseeing the layering in of drums, synths, brass, violins, vocals, and a variety of effects while allowing the signature Rhodes piano so prominent on earlier albums take more of a back seat role. These changes alone would be enough to make this the most dynamic and expansive record we’ve ever heard from The Album Leaf, but LaValle raises the stakes even higher with the addition of a pair of stunning vocal tracks featuring Kimbra and Natasha Khan (aka Bat for Lashes) respectively and some tasty horn solos by Ryan Svendsen that deliver some of the album’s most soaring moments.
There’s a lot more exploration, out of the box; I’ve found a really good balance in creating music organically and analog, utilizing digital tools to tweak the source further.
An ideal entry point to the music is a medley of the “Prologue” and “Epilogue” tracks that bookend the album set to a short film conceived by LaValle’s wife and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker Kate Trumbull LaValle in collaboration with cinematographer Helki Frantzen and editor Helena Rodriguez. Going beyond mere stylized visuals, the video features friends and family members in a series of sequences meant to be seen as a “meditation on the themes of grief, loss, isolation, connection, memory, family, and love”.
“Water becomes the connective tissue that binds these images together. Water like grief can overwhelm us, and water like love, reminds us to breathe.”
Future Falling is available now in a striking neon violet 2xLP vinyl edition along with digital download and streaming from Nettwerk Music Group with album artwork, design, and layout by Alex Deamo.
More Info: Bandcamp (LP/digital) | Download/Streaming | The Album Leaf
Stationary Travels 