CREDIT: SHERVIN LAINEZ
Making her return to the Aeolian on April 25, Laila Biali celebrates her newest release - House Of Many Rooms.

I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. In music we often see artists reinvent themselves, take chances on a new sound — or in some cases, a new persona — and mark a new period of artistic direction. This kind of rebirth has rejuvenated the careers and imaginations of many of Canada's favourite artists, and next week another exciting artist adds her name to their ranks.

To say that the Radiance Project represents a period of rebirth for Laila Biali would be an understatement; the artist transformed everything about her sound and style to take a risk on something new and near to her heart — her first album of entirely original compositions, an indie-pop record that marks a notable new direction from her jazz roots.

After spending years building this new sound, House Of Many Rooms is set for wide release next week on April 14. In honour, Biali and a full band are taking to the road in April, embarking next week on a road trip from British Columbia that will see them perform in London before the month is out.

“London is one of my favourite places on the planet,” she exclaimed, citing a gig in 2010 that endeared the Aeolian Hall to her so much as to highly rank it among her favourite stages in Canada. She returns there on April 25 with the Radiance Project, celebrating this new album in what promises to be a memorable occasion.

“This was a project that started many years ago, and took shape very slowly — in the cracks and crevices of life on the road, motherhood and putting out several other records,” she said. After making her introduction on the jazz scene, she released From Sea To Sky: Liala Biali in 2007 — an album of interpretations of contemporary Canadian songs — and got in the habit of whiling away her own original compositions.

“I started writing these songs that weren't entirely a mismatch with my jazz project but grew out of touring and performing with Paula Cole and Suzanne Vega, who were singer-songwriters and presenting original material. I started to experiment a little with songwriting myself, but kept this work on the back-burner because I was becoming known at the time as more of an arranger of the Canadian songbook.”

On House Of Many Rooms, Biali applies the skills she's honed as a performer and recording artist over the last decade to realize a new pop-oriented sound for this rewarding concept album. A metaphor for the human heart and mind, the new record portrays the emotional spectrum of life and love in full glorious colour, nuanced by the human experience — an alarm clock going off somewhere, or her son's heartbeat providing the backbone for “Home” on the record.

What's more, the album afforded Biali the opportunity to arrange accompaniments for a gospel choir and string orchestra for the first time. She expressed a long-held desire to work with the Toronto Mass Choir, confessing she's been watching for an opportunity to work with them over the years.

“I started really hearing them on that first track ‘Shadowlands,'” Biali said. “That was the beginning of the expansion of this music from your typical core band to something much bigger. Especially once we were in the studio, this album started serving as my sandbox; it was my wonderland where I could experiment and try some new things, and I was very fortunate to work with such incredible musicians.”

However, the album took perhaps its most interesting term when it arrived in the hands of popular mixing engineer Shawn Everett, who took what Biali described as then being a, “warm, elegant and reserved sound,” and fearlessly turned it around, transforming the final mix in ways that were initially shocking but went on to greatly inform the resulting album.

“It pushed the boundaries of what we would have chosen to do on the mixing side, but we allowed him to take us there,” she said. “We felt like it was good for us to be stretched, and I feel like that's probably what makes this project sound so different from my previous work.”

For more on Laila Biali and the Radiance Project or her coming album House Of Many Rooms, visit lailabiali.com or follow along on Twitter @lailabiali. Tickets for her show are $25, available from the Aeolian Hall Box Office Monday through Saturday or online from ticketscene.ca. Doors open at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.

And for more of the latest in music news, album streams and shows heading to London, follow this column on Twitter @fsu_bobbyisms. You can find House Of Many Rooms in your favourite store or streaming service next week, don't miss this satisfying listen. I'm out of words.