A Chorus Of Storytellers, The Album Leaf’s fifth long player, treads a similar path of creation to its predecessors. Recorded on the outskirts of Seattle in the biting February of 2009, the record then found its way over to Iceland and into the hands of Sigur Ros’ Birgir Jon Birgisson for mixing. So far, nothing new; the band’s association with the Iceland’s purveyors of glacial soundscapes is hardly a revelation, this however is: A Chorus of Storytellers sees The Album Leaf recording as a band. Historically, principal song-writer and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle has taken it upon himself to play everything on record, with a band backing him up for live performances ”” this time they’re along from the start.Opening with ‘Pero’, those who are already acquainted with the band’s mellow and ambient signature sound with be in familiar territory. The slow, brooding instrumental starts proceedings with a wash of wordless harmonies over a hopeful chord progression. Slow, digital rhythms fade into focus bringing an unintelligible spoken word sample with them. This is followed by ‘Blank Pages’, with its bowed strings, repetitive piano and processed beat flitting and squelching under a bed of aural calm. It’s not until ‘There is a Wind’ that we really start to feel the presence of the band. The first track of the album to feature vocals, it intones, “Running so far ahead just to get back to the end,” as the digital beats which characterise the band’s sound give way to drums played with flair, inventiveness excitement.The presence of the band is continued sporadically throughout the rest of the record. ‘Falling From The Sun’ finds LaValles vocals breaking with a sweet sincerity which almost finds the track coming off like a Flaming Lips remix ”“ almost. On ‘Stand Still’ the sound of a very live drum kit is a refreshing change in dynamic and is nicely juxtaposed against the trademark programmed electronics as piano and guitar lines delicately mirror each other’s moves.Even with this extra dynamic of a live band apparent on the album it could be argued that it suffers from a lack of ideas. Although there is plenty here to applaud (‘Summer Fog’, ‘Until The Last’, ‘Within Dreams’) and tracks stand up individual scrutiny, over the eleven tracks on offer the building blocks of: take a guitar or piano line, introduce a beat, then some strings, then “make it big” is employed a little too often. This is surprising when one considers the input from extra band members and begs the question: did LaValle ask the band along to help write the album or merely to help record it?Although A Chorus of Storytellers lacks some of the inventiveness that helped me and countless others fall in love with its older siblings it’s still a record of merit, accomplishment and one that you’ll be happy to return to. With a full band in tow it’ll certainly be interesting to see where The Album Leaf go next.

Buy the album on Amazon | [itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/we-are/id351684409?uo=4" title="The_Album_Leaf-A_Chorus_of_Storytellers_(Album)" text="iTunes"]Â | Rhythm Online