Los Angeles-based electronic artist, The Album Leaf is honoring those he has recently lost with his deeply personal new single, “Breathe.” Listen to the vulnerable and powerful new song now below.
Visionary Jimmy LaValle explains, “When I created Breathe, it was not about death or loss. But over the time period of finishing it, I’ve lost some close friends and family. Some died of cancer or of COVID, and some took their own life. I started to think about what kind of mindset or headspace you might find yourself in before that moment. What do you do? The thought came from a friend who took his life, he and I collaborated on a still unreleased meditative song, he sent me his raw vocal stem, and within it, he took deep, deep breaths. Not around his words but during the breaks. I can’t imagine how he felt in his last moments, but his deep breaths in that performance gave me hope that in his last moments, he found some sort of inner peace with his choice, and I imagine he took those deep, deep breaths before ending his life. In memory of Josh Stoddard, Gabe Serbian, Matt Hoyt, Bruce Byrd, Mark Waters, Richard Swift, Tim Reece, and Ray Espinoza.”
The Album Leaf has been steadily making his mark as a soft-spoken innovator since 1999. Now based in LA, Jimmy LaValle started out in the San Diego music scene creating vivid, rhythmic, soaring instrumentals centered around the Rhodes piano. With over two decades of acclaimed releases (for Sub Pop, City Slang, and others), countless film scores, and numerous collaborations with artists and brands, he has become a touchstone for the next generation’s wave of melodic and meditative electro-organic music.