Ebauche - Nine Times
Released: 22nd January 2026
Format: CD, Digital
Written, produced and mixed by Ebauche (Alex Leonard)
Cover Design by Adrianna Snochowska and Alex Leonard
Mastered by Porya Hatami
Nine Times is the fifth album released under the name Ebauche by Alex Leonard.
He had the idea in May 2023 to abandon the many machines he had available and focus his attention on a single tool: the compact and unique digital tape machine, the Bastl Thyme.
This exercise took on a life of its own. Initially he started with nothing more than the machine feeding back into itself, exploring ways to sculpt the sound. As he created more sketches, he varied things, for instance by feeding the ambience of the studio from a microphone into the machine, affecting it and feeding it back into itself to expose the machine's character beyond the ambient tone. Later, he introduced additional multi-effects units into the feedback chain.
He layered one take upon another, building upon and reacting to the sounds from the previous takes, slowly expanding each piece.
After an intensive period of composition, he allowed the pieces to 'age', so to speak, before returning to them later with fresh ears. In 2024, he edited the compositions into a more coherent form and finally mixed them in 2025.
The album was beautifully mastered by Porya Hatami, who is well known for his mastering work on albums by artists such as Arovane, Aidan Baker, Pausal, Andrew Tasselmyer, and many more.
The album artwork is the result of a collaboration between Adrianna Snochowska and Alex. Adrianna created a variety of textural, abstract experiments which they then photographed using an ultra-macro setup.