IN A SAFE PLACE |  | Artist: The Album Leaf
Label: Sub Pop Records
Category: Music
Buy New: $13.98
New (2) Used (1) from $13.98
Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 413496
Media: LP Record
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 12.6 x 12.6 x 0.2
UPC: 098787064018
EAN: 0098787064018
ASIN: B00023B1T4
Release Date: June 22, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Window | | • | Thule | | • | On Your Way | | • | Twentytwofourteen | | • | The Outer Banks | | • | Over the Pond | | • | Another Day | | • | Streamside | | • | Eastern Glow | | • | Moss Mountain Town |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Jimmy LaValle, perhaps known best for his work in the contemplative dream-rock outfit Tristeza and San Diego's The Black Heart Procession, began releasing delicate, progressive instrumental work as The Album Leaf in 1999(the name comes from a Chopin piece). After years of labor-intensive touring and tinkering with complex tracks in his cramped bedroom studio, LaValle was repeatedly offered a rare invite from Icelandic phenoms Sigur Ros and Mum to record his newest solo opus in their Mosfellsbaer studio. He finally accepted and flew overseas to compose and record "In A Safe Place." With the addition of vocals (absent from previous Album Leaf releases) from The Black Heart Procession's Pall Jenkins, Sigur Ros' Jon Thor Birgisson, and LaValle himself, the songs on the new record are chillingly delicate and more pop-based than ever before. "In A Safe Place" masterfully negotiates the spaces between minimal electronica and neo-instrument rock.
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| Customer Reviews:
Relaxing stuff November 19, 2008
Alex TB
With In A Safe Place, The Album Leaf has crafted an album that is geared towards a very specific purpose, but luckily that purpose is fulfilled with good to great success. To say that this album is good to fall asleep to might not be such a horrible insult, because it is obvious that this was made to be relaxing enough to fall asleep to. These melodies are relaxing, comforting, and most of all warm, and as the title declares, this music was mostly made to relax and melt troubles away at least for the span of a decent sized album. And really, it is quite impressive how much Jimmy LaValle accomplishes in a little over fifty minutes without really shifting his style much. At points, the goal is changed and the music becomes too tense to really relax too but at the same time it ends up being charming and abrasive nonetheless. Some songs like Window, Over The Pond (featuring Jonsi of Sigur Ros no less), and Streamside are absolutely gorgeous in how relaxing and warm they really are, and at other times songs develop with careful precision into beautiful soaring melodies. I think the production on this album is the biggest problem I had. I didn't like the beats half the time, but they did end up successfully creating relaxing breakbeats, a monumental oxymoron in the ambient world. Also, some of the songs are just kind of dull and meandering, and to be honest, the album repeats itself and does not really develop or switch anything up. The delicate strings are downright wonderful though. For it's specific purpose, dream incubation and relaxation, this album achieves impressive heights.
 Serene but certainly not tedious May 21, 2008
Piers Moktan (Khorsor Elephant Stable, Nepal)
Something of a chance discovery, this is an absolutely gorgeous record, which reminds me why you shouldn't always trust reviewers. According to what I first encountered about `In A Safe Place' by The Album Leaf, the solo project of Jimmy LaValle, this was supposedly a rather mediocre and uninteresting record. What did intrigue me however was that it had been recorded in Iceland with members of Sigur Ros and The Black Heart Procession (with whom he also plays), and that it was an exercise in ambient, classically-infused post-rock featuring string arrangements and subtle electronic effects (by no means disappointing after his work with Tristeza as some have claimed). Well, these are the type of sounds which have been engaging me over the past few years, so I thought it worth at least a trial, test listen. And that sold it to me.
There was something else though that also made me curious. I know times have changed, but hearing such delicate, intricately produced sounds as these on a label that came to define the Seattle-based, lo-fi, grungey garage rock revival of the late 80s/early 90s came as a bit of a shock. After all, I was there when Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Nirvana were the in-thing, even seeing Nirvana perform in London with Godflesh and L7 before they skyrocketed to major-label, world-dominating fame. Sub Pop has clearly changed, not letting its legendary past constrain its future, and has gone onto nurture new and different sounds, including the wonders of `In A Safe Place'.
At times, that signature Scandinavian sound is evident- cheerfully melancholic music that evokes a bleak arctic world from which people shelter in warm and comforting enclaves. Echoes of Sigur Ros can definitely be heard making a worthy contribution, but under LaValle's supervision something rather more accessible emerges- it's more recognisably `human' and not nearly so bizarre and other-worldly as Sigur Ros can be (no offence intended). And while LaValle utilises an updated, more orchestrated version of the early 70s electronic ambient music of Cluster and Eno, it is almost always propelled by a gently skittering programmed percussive base. And this in turn is further enriched by melodies of strings, bells, Rhodes piano and strategically understated vocals (sometimes of the intelligible variety, sometimes of that soothing and beguiling style so typical of Sigur Ros). All in all, this makes for an enthralling album, which for me, has stood the test of other music clamouring for my attention. When I need something to instil a mellow state of contemplation, this is one of my favoured choices. Beautiful.
Drifting and dreaming February 12, 2008
Matthew T. Medlock (Cincinnati, OH)
Upon first listen (knowing nothing of the band or album), I simply thought, "Well, the Album Leaf sure does love Sigur Ros." So it was actually both surprising and inevitable when I found out about the actual connection (I guess that in turn Sigur Ros must love Album Leaf). Therefore, "In a Safe Place" is incapable of blowing minds or demanding abject attention, but it sure does make for some fine background music. Drifting and dreaming is best left to others, but there's more than enough notable sections of this long player to take notice now and then.
The album hinges on the best bits of its ambient rotation, notably the melodic roll of "Thule," the stretched noisy hums of "Over the Pond," and the repeating but ever-changing line on "The Outer Banks." Centerpiece, "On Your Way" (one of the only songs with words), sounds like the moody pop arrangements of Incubus meets Doves. Only the back end, which is more subdued than even background music has any right to be, is lacking (though "Eastern Glow," even as it borrows from the superior "Outer Banks," is a keeper). So if Sigur Ros is your thing, you'll have no problem getting lost in the tenderly harmonious sea crafted by the Album Leaf.
Best cuts: "Over the Pond," "On Your Way," "The Outer Banks," "Thule," "Eastern Glow," "Another Day"
 Title of the album says it all, musically December 27, 2007
OneLove (so fla)
For the Tristeza guitarist's third solo album Jimmy LaValle inches his way towards a more radio friendly, vocals-included album, leaving only a partial print of the gentle, introspective melancholia he had become known for. The collaborations with Sigur Ros only truly work once, and many of the songs built around lyrics feel uninspired, but IASP still includes just enough glitch-based beauty to find a safe place into a fan's collection.
 Uninspired June 20, 2007
Maaaahhhhhhhtttt (california)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
The best word I can use to describe this album is boring. I like this kind of music, but the way its done on this album is so dull. The beats are really old and tired and there is nothing new here. I felt embarassed for the artist at times.
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