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Today, Equinox stands as one of Laube’s most intimate works to date, weaving together Nordic serenity, ambient minimalism, and folk-inspired textures. The album—now available exclusively on SoundCloud and Fairmus—arrives as a deeply personal sequel to his expansive debut, Liminal (released January 2025), which chronicled fifteen years of creative evolution.
“I wanted Equinox to sound like the quiet between two storms,” Laube tells The Northern Voices. “It’s about that moment when light and darkness feel equal—when you stop fighting the chaos and start finding harmony in it.”
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A Sound Between Light and Shadow
The album’s title evokes the celestial event where day and night share equal measure. For Laube, it became a symbol of emotional alignment—the equilibrium he sought during his recovery from a serious health challenge earlier this year.
“This project shows a more mature side of me,” he reflects. “It’s music rooted in my mental-health journey and in the self-damaging choices that hurt me physically and emotionally. These songs are about making amends—with myself and with those who showed me patience and kindness.”
Across its nine tracks (seven plus a bonus composition), Equinox traverses a landscape of sound that feels cinematic yet deeply human. Gentle strings and resonant pianos drift through expanses of quiet electronic atmospheres, punctuated by the organic warmth of Nordic folk motifs. The result is a body of work that feels equally at home in a concert hall, an art installation, or a late-night subway ride through the city.
Laube’s violin leads the narrative—sometimes sighing, sometimes soaring—anchored by minimalist piano figures and luminous synth pads. Each track flows seamlessly into the next, mirroring the cycles of dusk and dawn that inspired the record.
Art and Image Intertwined
As both a composer and visual designer, Laube sees no division between sound and image. The artwork for Equinox, created by the artist himself, depicts a winged figure suspended in a twilight haze—caught between earth and sky. It’s an image that captures the soul of the album: fragile yet resilient, bound yet ascending.
“The figure represents the moment of balance,” says Laube. “Not perfection, but stillness—the point where you realize light and darkness aren’t enemies. They define each other.”
The visual aesthetic extends into how Laube talks about his compositions: he describes each piece as a “scene” or “tableau,” a reflection of his ongoing work in performance and theatrical storytelling. It’s easy to imagine Equinox adapted as a visual performance piece—something between a chamber recital and a dance installation, with motion, light, and sound in constant conversation.
From Liminal to Equinox
Laube’s first album, Liminal, released at the dawn of 2025, was an 18-track tapestry gathering fragments from fifteen years of writing. Grand and sprawling, it represented an artist processing the transitions between youth and maturity, chaos and clarity.
By contrast, Equinox is distilled. It doesn’t chase scale—it seeks stillness. It feels like an artist closing the circle: more grounded, more inward-looking, and perhaps, more free.
Where Liminal was an odyssey, Equinox feels like a homecoming.
“Releasing Equinox now feels like coming full circle,” Laube says. “What started as a few sketches became a record of everything I’ve been learning about healing. It’s an album that simply exists in balance—between what hurts and what helps.”
A Nordic Sensibility in a New York State of Mind
Though Laube now lives and works in New York, Equinox feels unmistakably Northern in temperament. The restraint, the patience, the reverence for silence—all reflect his Estonian heritage and the influence of wider Nordic culture. Like the long twilight hours of a northern autumn, Equinox lingers in subtle tones rather than declarations.
It’s this quality that makes Laube’s music resonate so strongly with Nordic and Baltic audiences abroad: it’s contemporary, yes, but steeped in the quiet honesty that defines the region’s creative spirit.
Where to Listen
Equinox was officially released on November 10, 2025, and is currently available on SoundCloud and Fairmus. A full streaming rollout to Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms will follow later this winter.
🎧 Listen on SoundCloud
🎧 Listen on Fairmus
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About the Artist
Valev Laube is an Estonian-American creative director, designer, and composer based in New York City. His multidisciplinary work spans music, branding, and performance art, exploring the intersection of sound, culture, and identity.
His projects often draw on Nordic and Baltic influences while embracing global creative collaboration. Through his design firm, The VL Studios, and cultural initiatives such as The Northern Voices, Laube continues to build bridges between art, innovation, and community.
