The Album Leaf is the solo project of Jimmy LaValle, guitarist for San Diego, California-based post-rock band Tristeza. LaValle has also performed in several other San Diego-area bands, including Swing Kids, The Locust, and GoGoGo Airheart.

Jimmy LaValle had been playing guitar in the post-rock instrumental band Tristeza. Being a multi-instrumentalist, during downtime in the fall of 1998, he began playing drums for San Diego band GoGoGo Airheart. The singer and guitarist for the group, Mike Vermillion (which later inspired the song name “Vermillion” on One Day I’ll Be on Time) recorded LaValle doing improvised material playing to a vintage Roland drum machine on a Rhodes Piano that would become his first full-length album, the 10-track “An Orchestrated Rise to Fall”. Benjamin White of GoGoGo Airheart and Vermillion both supplied added improvisation with synthesizers and vocals to these recordings.

Before Tristeza released “Spine and ... read more »