Jimmy LaValle’s one-man band the Album Leaf is the hot-shit indie act at the San Diego Music Awards this year, and it deserves to be. The band’s latest release, In a Safe Place, is a temptingly lonely trip through the gallery of dreamy atmospherics and skittering beats we’ve come to expect from the Album Leaf, with one difference: LaValle adds vocals to his songs for the first time on In a Safe Place, and wisely spreads them out, giving the album — like his songs — a feeling of progression, as if we’re hearing him change with each passing measure.

On the instrumental tracks that make up most of the album, LaValle focuses on creating room-filling layers of sound with keyboard, organ, cello and the occasional guitar.

His songs are dramatic stories: they fade in slowly, as layers of melody intertwine, the motion gradually growing stronger; over time they transform in hue and texture, building slowly to a sustained zenith. Meandering lyrical lines reach full bloom and fall into a scampering, desolate beat. Then, finally, the main theme rises to the top, reinforced by the graceful weave of the instruments below.

With In a Safe Place, Jimmy LaValle may have had a breakthrough. The bestowal of titles is ultimately meaningless — artistic accomplishments along the lines of this album speak enough good of their maker.