Between his proper records, film soundtracks, remix collections, and full-album collaborations, Jimmy LaValle has released 20 records in his career as the instrumental post-rock one-man-band The Album Leaf dating back to the project’s origins at the tail end of the ’90s. Yet A Body of Voices proves that he still has plenty of ideas to explore—in this case, a vocal-heavy album enlisting some of LaValle’s favorite artists spanning plenty of genres. After contributions from Bat for Lashes and Kimbra added rays of hope to the artist’s Future Falling LP in 2023, Twin Shadow, Black Mountain, Blue Hawaii’s Raphaelle Standell, and Hundred Waters’ Nicole Miglis are just a few of the names that grace the track list this time around.
The result is one of the artist’s more inspired releases in recent years, which he’s quick to credit his list of guest vocalists for. “This record was made from a collection of existing instrumental demos that I had been working on,” he explains of the process behind the release. “I sent a group of them around to the different collaborators and let them choose which songs they connected with. Once they sent their vocal ideas back, I was able to really start seeing the vision for these songs and understand what they could become. From there, I could build and shape the record around what each person brought to it.”
These 10 collaborations (preceding one solo cut to close out the record) helped LaValle open 10 doors he may never have encountered otherwise, in doing so reinvigorating his love for collaborative songwriting. “In a lot of ways, I was discovering these songs along with the collaborators,” he shares. “I had created the initial framework, but their voices, melodies, lyrics, and approaches opened up things in the music that I hadn’t necessarily heard when I was making the instrumentals. That became a really exciting part of the process for me, and ultimately it’s what allowed A Body of Voices to become the record that it is.”
With the record out today via Nettwerk Music Group, check out his track-by-track breakdown of the release, along with a few words on a favorite track from each of his contributors. You can also stream the full album below, or listen here.
1. “Floating” feat. Spencer Zahn
“Floating” started with an FM synth sound I found on my Elektron Digitone. I sampled it, brought the sample into Ableton, and started sequencing it. I made the arpeggio with a Make Noise 0-Coast and then started putting some chords over the top. Pretty quickly, it felt like I had the foundation of a solid song. To get it over the finish line, I asked my friend Spencer Zahn to play bass. I was hearing an approach similar to Sade’s “Ordinary Love,” which Spencer really nailed. He then took the fretless bass and started treating it almost like another melodic voice, soloing over the track. I ended up doubling some of the melodies he played, and that really helped bring the whole thing together. I sent the finished track to Joshua Eustis to mix, and he brought it across the finish line.
Favorite Spencer Zahn song: “High Touch”
I love the chord progression and the journey of the piece. The melody is so strong, and I love how the repeated chords create this foundation while the saxophone takes you somewhere. It’s such a simple idea, but the way he develops it creates this really beautiful sense of movement and discovery.
2. “Take Me” feat. Raphaelle Standell
With all of these songs, I let the vocalist choose the song they wanted to work on. I put together a playlist of instrumental tracks and sent it to the collaborators, and they got to pick what they connected with. Raphaelle has been an inspiring vocalist to me for years, and her vocal work in both Braids and Blue Hawaii has always impressed me with the journey she’s able to create. My songs can sometimes subtly change in chords, and I’ll often rely on changing something in the beats or adding a counter-melody of some sort to create movement. I wanted the vocalists to be able to take us on a journey both through storytelling and melody. “Take Me” is a phenomenal example of Raphaelle’s ability to do this. Her earlier work with her own music was actually one of the inspirations for me to start thinking about working with vocalists in the first place. I loved the way she was able to use her voice to create movement and emotion within a piece, and that was something I wanted to explore more deeply with these songs.
Favorite Raphaelle Standell song: “Try to Be” by Blue Hawaii
I truly love this entire record [2013’s Untogether], but it’s a perfect example of how she can navigate to different places over a repetitive idea and keep you interested and surprised with her performance. I love how much she’s able to discover within something that, on the surface, stays relatively simple.
3. “Turns” feat. Nicole Miglis
When I first heard Hundred Waters, I was blown away. The Moon Rang Like a Bell was such a unique, creative, fresh approach to songwriting and vocal delivery. Nicole’s voice was so smooth, soft, and lush. When she said yes to collaborating, I was psyched. “Turns” was actually a song I’d written for another vocal collaboration that didn’t end up happening years earlier, so there was more than enough space in the song for her to sing. It was also written in a more traditional song format, so it felt like a natural fit. I really love Nicole’s storytelling and the push and pull she created with her vocal. Most of these instrumentals had working titles that were “cycles” followed by whatever number I had written them in. They were all written around the time of the Future Falling material. Nicole saw that title and pulled from it for inspiration, asking, “Can we break this cycle?” She also spearheaded the music video and really led the charge on the story and visual direction.
Favorite Nicole Miglis song: “Out Alee” by Hundred Waters
Her piano playing, the lyrics, and the time signatures are all so unique and surprising. I have a huge amount of respect for her musicianship in this song. There’s so much going on rhythmically and melodically, but she makes it feel completely natural and effortless. I’ve watched a couple of live videos of them doing this song and couldn’t fathom how you play this and sing it at the same time. It’s such a cool song, and I love that she can take something that’s musically so complex and still make it feel so expressive and immediate.
4. “True Love, Don’t Be Afraid” feat. Black Mountain
“True Love, Don’t Be Afraid” was a COVID song. It was kind of an experiment and an accidental song, and it wasn’t something that felt particularly typical of me—and certainly not typical of Stephen [McBean] from Black Mountain. So when he chose it from the playlist, I was like, “OK, cool! Let’s do it?” I absolutely love what he did with it. It’s such a sweet song, and there’s something about the message that feels almost like it came from a poet. I’ve long admired Stephen’s work with Black Mountain. We played shows together back in the early 2000s and kept crossing paths over the years, so there was always this familiarity there. The idea of collaborating was something I never really thought would happen. But when he chose this song, it just really worked for me. He came into my studio to track with me, and hearing what he brought to it made the whole collaboration feel very natural.
Favorite Stephen McBean songs: “Plastic Man, You’re the Devil” by Pink Mountaintops; “Wucan” by Black Mountain
Both of these songs show how incredibly melodic Stephen is as a vocalist. “Plastic Man, You’re the Devil” was actually a song I’d find a way to work into my DJ sets from time to time. And “Wucan” is just a straight banger. The groove, his guitar work, the melodies overall, and then that straight-up chugging guitar bridge that breaks the hypnotic groove you’re entranced in—pure gold. Chef’s kiss.
5. “Falling” feat. Maiah Manser
Maiah was an artist I wasn’t familiar with going into the record. My manager suggested her after a meeting, and when I heard her voice I was immediately taken by it. Her vocals are incredibly angelic and strong at the same time. We did this one in the studio together, and our initial creative conversations really aligned around this siren-inspired approach to the vocal delivery. I was able to craft a lot of ambience through the vocal production, which created a whole other layer over the arpeggios and the odd-time-signature Rhodes progression. I was also hearing flutes specifically as a kind of bookend to the song, so I brought in another collaborator, Aaron Shaw, to add flute to the composition. I really love how all of those elements ended up interacting. I think the end result is truly a beautiful, transcendent piece.
Favorite Maiah Manser song: “Hollywood”
“Hollywood” is a favorite of mine because it’s just great songwriting. I really love how Maiah chooses major scales to sing in throughout her work. That actually came up with our song: I was hearing the melody in minor, and she heard it in major. “Hollywood” has that same quality to me. It feels like it could’ve been minor, but the way she delivers it changes the feeling completely. Her delivery is so strong, and her songwriting really shines through.
6. “Fight or Flight” feat. Aisha Badru
“Fight or Flight” was a collaboration that happened through a label connection back during COVID, before this record was even realized. Nettwerk connected Aisha and me to collaborate, and I sent her this instrumental to sing on. There’s so much emotion in her voice. Production-wise, there are no harmonies, no effects, and really nothing getting in the way of her voice. It’s just her performance, and it carries itself throughout the entire piece. I wanted to leave that space for her because there’s so much character and emotion in the way she sings. Adding a bunch of production around it would’ve taken away from what makes her performance so powerful. Her vocal character really shines through here, and I think it’s such a beautiful, heartfelt performance.
Favorite Aisha Badru song: “Mind on Fire”
“Mind on Fire” really highlights what I love about Aisha’s voice. Her voice carries the entire piece. It’s such a simple guitar part, and she just leads the whole thing with this beautiful, intimate vocal performance. There isn’t a lot there to hide behind, and I think that’s what makes it so effective: Every little inflection and every bit of emotion in her voice becomes part of the song. I love the simplicity of it and the state it puts me in. It feels very unforced and honest, and there’s something really powerful about how little she needs around her to make the song feel complete. That quality was definitely something I was drawn to when working on “Fight or Flight” with her.
7. “Intertwine” feat. TT
Theresa [Wayman] and I had met up years earlier to try to collaborate around her solo release. So when I started developing this record around the idea of vocal collaborations, I immediately asked her if she wanted to sing on one of my tracks. She chose an early demo of “Intertwine,” and then I waited for quite a while for her to send over her vocal idea. At some point I started thinking it probably wasn’t going to happen. Then, while I was on tour in Japan, she sent it over. It was just four quick vocal phrases, but honestly, that was really all I needed to bring the song home. When I got back, I dug into what she’d sent and started figuring out how I could build the song around those four phrases. I used some of her vocal to create rhythms and harmonies, and it really became part of the instrumentation of the track rather than just a vocal sitting on top of it.
I was able to shape the structure around what she gave me, and then Aaron Ray added live drums, which really helped push the groove forward. Theresa also offered to play guitar on it, which became another important piece of the arrangement. Once all of those elements came together, the track took on a life that I wasn’t really expecting from that original demo. The end result is a groove and a track that I truly love. I think what I love most about it is how little there actually was to start with. Four vocal phrases opened up this whole world of possibilities, and it became a really good example of why I wanted to make this record around collaboration in the first place. You give someone a little piece of something, they give you something back, and suddenly you’re hearing the song in a way you never could have gotten to on your own.
Favorite Theresa Wayman track: “I’ve Been Fine”; “Love Is to Die” by Warpaint
“I’ve Been Fine” is a great example of something I really love about Theresa’s work—a repetitive song that keeps evolving through the vocal. I love the chorus hook, but I also love the way she can find a whole journey within a relatively simple musical idea. She has a way of making repetition feel hypnotic rather than static. I also really love how she builds her tracks around these super interesting samples and loops. There’s something about the production on LoveLaws that I’m really drawn to as a whole. The sounds feel carefully chosen, but the music never feels overly constructed or fussy. There’s always some little detail pulling you further into the track.
Of course, she’s probably best known for her work with Warpaint, whose records I absolutely love. From the Warpaint catalog, my favorite has gotta be “Love Is to Die.” I love Theresa’s vocal melody and her lyrics in that song. Her lyrics are always fun and interesting to me, and there are these little lines that just stick with you. “I’ve got a knife, to cut out the memories, so carefully” is such a great example. There’s something poetic and slightly strange about the way she puts words together that I’ve always really loved.
8. “Cry When I’m Nervous” feat. Twin Shadow
George [Lewis Jr.] picked the demo of “Cry When I’m Nervous,” and I was really blown away when he sent the track back. This was a truly collaborative endeavor. He added synths, changed up the bass line a bit, and delivered quite a vocal performance. He brought in so many interesting layers that the song evolved pretty heavily from what it started as. Aaron played drums on this one again, and I think his playing really makes the song. The combination of the live drums with all of the new elements George brought in gave the track a completely different energy.
This song was also a bit of a challenge for me because I found myself second-guessing all of the new directions I was taking it. That happens pretty often with my writing. I’ll go down a long path exploring different approaches, questioning whether I’m making the right choices, and sometimes end up circling all the way back to where I started. There’s a lot of that process in this song. But George’s changes and additions really steered the direction of this one. I love when a collaboration gets to that point where you hand someone a song and they don’t just add their part, they actually start reshaping the way you hear the whole thing. That definitely happened here. After all the second-guessing and different directions, it eventually landed somewhere that felt really natural, and I’d say it’s probably one of the catchiest songs to come out of the Album Leaf camp.
Favorite Twin Shadow track: “Five Seconds”
“Five Seconds” was really my introduction to Twin Shadow. I love how simple the song is. It doesn’t need a ton of elements to make an impact. The melody is so strong and memorable, and there’s this anthemic quality to the whole thing that makes you want to sing along with it. The lyrics and George’s vocal performance really complete that feeling. There’s a real emotional directness to it that I love. I think that was one of the things that made such an impression on me when I first heard it—the song feels incredibly accessible without feeling predictable. It has this immediate quality where you understand it right away, but the more you listen, the more it sticks with you. It’s one of those songs where the simplicity is actually the magic of it. And I think that ability to write something that feels that immediate and anthemic is really hard to pull off.
9. “Allow Yourself” feat. Motherboard
“Allow Yourself” came from another artist I wasn’t familiar with before my manager introduced us. Kyle [Kidd]’s voice immediately blew me away, but their choice of song really surprised me. When they picked this one, I wasn’t quite sure where they were going to take it. Then they sent the performance back and it immediately made sense. There’s something really beautiful about the story they found in the song. The lyrics are essentially about confronting fear instead of continuing to run from it. There’s this recurring imagery of fire and falling, and the idea of being brought back to the same place over and over again until you finally decide to jump in rather than save yourself from it. By the end, the song shifts from fear and uncertainty into something much more accepting—almost like allowing yourself to surrender to the experience instead of fighting against it.
Kyle’s performance really brings that transformation to life. They start from this place of vulnerability, and as the song develops, their voice becomes more and more anthemic. I love the heart and earnestness they bring to it. There’s nothing cynical about the performance—it feels completely sincere, and that makes the emotional payoff hit even harder. I also love how the song builds toward that repeated “let it burn” section. It becomes almost hypnotic through the repetition, but at the same time it feels like a release. What starts as something frightening becomes almost empowering. By the time you get to the final idea of allowing yourself to submerge and trusting that things will work together in your favor, it feels like the song has arrived somewhere completely different from where it began.
Favorite Motherboard track: “Temple”
“Temple” is such a vibe. This track just has “feel good” written all over it. Every time I hear it, it puts me into this kind of trance where everything feels good for a minute and I’m just completely in the song. The vocal is so perfect for the music—there’s this simple, repetitive line that just keeps pulling you back in and gives me all the feels. I love the loop the whole track is built around. It’s not trying to constantly introduce something new or show you how much is happening. It finds this really great pocket and just stays there, letting the groove and the vocal do the work. That kind of restraint is something I really appreciate. There’s a confidence in knowing when you’ve found the right idea and just letting it breathe. The whole thing has this warmth and optimism to it that feels almost impossible not to respond to. It’s hypnotic without being heavy, repetitive without getting boring, and just has this really natural sense of movement. It’s one of those songs where I don’t necessarily need to analyze why it works—I can just put it on and immediately feel better. The vibe is absolutely perfect.
10. “A Known Tomorrow” feat. Aeletan
Natalia [Padilla] is a dear friend of mine and someone I respect immensely as a musician. We first met when her old band, Vákoum—a duo with her partner Kelli—toured with The Album Leaf. The music she creates has such a unique tone that I’ve always been completely drawn to, and when I was putting together the vocal collaborations for this record, I actually sent her this specific track because I thought it would be perfect for her. When she sent her vocal performance back, I was absolutely blown away. The song itself doesn’t have a ton of changes, so there was a lot of space for her to create movement through the vocal. That’s something I really love about her: It’s not necessarily about needing a lot of musical changes underneath her. She can take a relatively simple foundation and find all of these different places to go within her performance.
She also has an incredible ear for vocal effects and production, and she added a lot of that to her vocals here. The effects become another layer of the composition rather than just something sitting on top of the voice. There’s a really careful balance between her natural vocal character and all of these processed elements, and I love how she shaped that world. I’m really drawn to her ear for melody, especially her choice of notes and the way she approaches vocal cadence. There are little melodic decisions throughout the song that I probably wouldn’t have made myself, and those are some of my favorite moments. Her lyrics also give the song another layer of personality and emotion. I think “A Known Tomorrow” is a great example of what I was hoping would happen with these collaborations. I can give someone a relatively simple musical framework, but the right vocalist can completely change the way that framework feels.
Favorite Vákoum track: “Breathing Through a Straw”
“Breathing Through a Straw” was really my introduction to Natalia’s work. I saw a live performance video of Vákoum doing it and was completely blown away. Even seeing it live, you could hear how much thought and intention there was behind the songwriting. She’s an incredible songwriter. I love the unexpected chord choices she makes and the way she uses them to keep a song moving without it ever feeling like she’s just changing things for the sake of changing them. There’s always something that catches my ear and makes me wonder where she’s going to take it next. And then there’s the vocal. Her vocal melodies are always such a great ride to go on. She has this ability to move through a melody in a way that feels really natural, but still keeps you guessing. That combination of interesting songwriting, unexpected harmony, and the way she navigates a vocal is a huge part of what drew me to her work in the first place—and ultimately why I knew she’d be such a great fit for “A Known Tomorrow.”
11. “A Body of Voices”
“A Body of Voices” is my own track, and I thought it would be nice to end the record with a closer that leaves you feeling like you’ve finished a journey. It’s so hard to get listeners to take a record from front to back in the streaming era, but track sequencing has always been an important part of my records. I stress over it tirelessly with every record I make. I still really care about how one song leads into the next and, ultimately, where the whole thing leaves you.
With this record in particular, that felt even more important because there are so many different voices and personalities throughout it. Each collaboration brings you into a different world, and I wanted the final track to feel like a place where all of those worlds could settle for a minute. Rather than ending with another vocal or another big statement, I wanted to let the record exhale.
This is an instrumental track, and in a way it bookends the record with “Floating,” the opening track. “Floating” is also instrumental and was meant to set the tone for everything that follows. I liked the idea of returning to that world at the very end, but letting it feel a little different after everything you’ve heard in between. The opening is an invitation into the record, while this feels more like the walk home. It’s also a bit of a return to what I’m more traditionally known for, but it’s an experiment in tone at the same time. I used a lot of the techniques and ideas I learned while making the rest of this record—especially from working with all of these vocalists—and applied them to an instrumental piece. After spending so much time handing songs over to other people and seeing what they would find inside them, it was interesting to take all of that back and apply it to my own process. In that sense, I think the collaborations changed the way I hear my own music. Hearing how other people approached melody, rhythm, texture, lyrics, and performance gave me new things to think about. So even though this is an instrumental Album Leaf track, it feels like there are traces of all of those experiences in it.
I wanted the ending to feel less like a full stop and more like settling into a comfortable place. There’s something really satisfying to me about a record that can take you through different emotional spaces and then leave you with a sense of warmth rather than trying to end with the biggest possible moment. After all of the different voices, stories, textures, and approaches throughout the record, I wanted this last piece to just let everything breathe.
Hopefully, when it ends, you have that feeling that you’ve gone somewhere, experienced something, and arrived back home. And maybe, if I’ve done my job right, it makes you want to start the whole thing over again.
