The Album Leaf

In 2001, One Day I’ll Be On Time propelled The Album Leaf from Jimmy LaValle’s part-time solo project to a full-fledged live band touring with Sigur Rós. LaValle, who came up in the late ‘90s San Diego music scene playing in hardcore bands and as a founding member of instrumental rock band Tristeza, found himself at a crossroads with his commitments. With Tristeza’s upward trajectory, LaValle felt the pull of a separate outlet. In 1999, he released a collection of drum machine and Rhodes piano improvisations titled An Orchestrated Rise to Fall and began opening Tristeza’s shows under this exploratory alias, The Album Leaf. Tristeza was signed to Tigerstyle Records, and LaValle had also inked a deal to release his next solo album through the NYC-based indie label. He put the modest label advance towards a self-recording starter setup, building out the sound with occasional studio access from his day job at a jingle house. The music that emerged — vivid, rhythmic, soaring instrumentals guided by lines of guitar and Rhodes — not only set the path for The Album Leaf over the next two decades of acclaimed releases (for Sub Pop, City Slang, and others), it became a touchstone for the next generation's wave of melodic and meditative electro-organic music. For its 20th anniversary, Jimmy LaValle has re-recorded One Day I’ll Be On Time with his longtime collaborator James McAlister and members of his live band, re-imagining every arrangement with what he knows now as a composer and performer, celebrating the songs from a different vantage, with technical prowess and the emotional clarity that time and distance can afford. The reworked album sees release in 2021 on Nettwerk Music Group.