Jimmy LaValle’s The Album Leaf delivers A BODY OF VOICES, his 9th studio LP and the most collaborative, pop-forward project of his acclaimed quarter-century run. Known for nuanced, melodic, and meditative electro-organic music, LaValle is a process-driven artist who embraces constant refinement and iteration. He’s learned what his natural inclinations are, where the parameters tend to set in, and how to break beyond them: by welcoming the artistry of others. Something he’s done regularly and rewardingly in past records, but never on this scale. Nearly every track on A BODY OF VOICES is a collaboration; contributors include Aaron Shaw, Aaron Ray, Aisha Badru, Kyle Kidd, Maiah Manser, Aelatan, Nicole Miglis (Hundred Waters), Theresa Wayman (Warpaint), Raphaelle Standell-Preston (Braids, Blue Hawaii), Spencer Zahn, Stephen McBean (Black Mountain), and Twin Shadow. LaValle’s signature world-building production, which has consciously evolved from his Rhodes into a more modern, textural synthesis, takes new shape with this group of dynamic vocalists and instrumentalists; the map expands entirely.

“I really wanted to work with artists who, first and foremost, I admire and love their work,” says LaValle. “But also people who could really navigate, both lyrical storytelling and sonic storytelling, capable of melodically shifting within a song that may not be shifting so much on its own.” The Album Leaf began as a solitary outlet outside of LaValle’s time playing in bands. As it has developed, he’s increasingly seen the project in less isolated frameworks, ever-introspective yet more collective than ever. For 2023’s Future Falling, he sent compositions to Bat For Lashes, Kimbra, and others, seeing where their vocal interpretations could take them. Here, he brings that approach to its full potential with an album fixed on harmonious and unexpected pairings.

A BODY OF VOICES opens in “Floating”, a ruminative synth drift with instrumentation by Spencer Zahn, who contributed to several tracks between sessions at the two artists’ respective spaces in Los Angeles. The pulse accelerates for “Intertwine,” featuring TT (Warpaint’s Theresa Wayman). A propulsive mix of LaValle’s programming and live drums from Aaron Ray (who records as RAAYS and tours in The Album Leaf’s live band) encircles Wayman’s relaxed delivery for a feeling both urgent and dreamy. 

Standout “Turns” features heartfelt, relatable lines from Nicole Miglis, whose hushed, pliable vocals, when paired with kinetic beats, instantly evoke her music with Hundred Waters and Bonobo. “Can we break this cycle?” she repeats, as production points skyward. “I’ve loved that track from the beginning,” says LaValle. “Her range, her lyricism, where she sings, where she sits within the melody…Nicole just really brought it all together.” 

George William Lewis Jr., aka Twin Shadow, selected the raw arrangement LaValle sent him from a batch of many. “That track has come a long way,” says LaValle. “Along with the vocals, George added a lot of synth ideas and changed up the bass line, and it transformed the vibe.” The resulting track, “Cry When I’m Nervous”, is among the punchiest in The Album Leaf’s catalog.

Some creative exchanges reflect years spent in each other’s orbit; take the electro-leaning “True Love, Don’t Be Afraid” with Black Mountain’s Stephen McBean. The Canadian psych-rock band may not be an obvious contemporary of LaValle, but the two acts have shared bills on various occasions since the early days. “We did a show together in Montreal, and then we kept crossing paths. Steve is just amazing, a sweetheart of a human, and his past work actually goes back to a similar, really communal scene that I sprouted from, you know, underground hardcore in San Diego, and his background in Vancouver. We actually played shows together in the ‘90s in our former bands without knowing each other.”

Similarly, LaValle met Raphaelle Standell-Preston back in 2015, when her band played the same festival in England. There, they talked about working together, and a decade later, they finally followed through, joined by Braids bandmate Austin Tufts on drums and mixing. “Take Me” is adventurous and vulnerable, a meandering synth-pop piece that takes unusual turns. “She’s been the artist that I’ve always wanted to work with, because of the journeys that she’s able to go on vocally,” says LaValle.

As the contributors and textures shift, LaValle’s compositional fingerprint — his instincts for space, tempo, and timing — hold A BODY OF VOICES together as a singular statement. “I still fall into my own patterns,” he admits. “No matter how hard I try to get away from it. But I’ve been finding a lot of solace in collaborating.” Nearly thirty years into The Album Leaf, the pioneering project remains unmistakably his, yet it’s a mode he’s also not afraid to redefine. It is that fluid process, of pushing outside the comfort lines, that keeps him going, making for one of the more enduring electronic projects of our time.