A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole Alabaster DePlume

• 1 Oh My Actual Days 03:48
• 2 Thank You My Pain 02:59
• 3 Invincibility 03:08
• 4 Form a V 03:06
• 5 A Paper Man 04:53
• 6 Who Are You Telling, Gus 03:56
• 7 Prayer For My Sovereign Dignity 04:02
• 8 Kuzushi 02:40
• 9 Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem 03:57
• 10 Too True 02:35
• 11 That Was My Garden 07:35
• Total Runtime 42:39

Info for A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole

Alabaster DePlume — the acclaimed London-based saxophonist, singer, songwriter, activist, orator, and poet-philosopher — releases "A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole", a daring new album out March 7th. In it, DePlume shares eleven songs of agency and survival and presence; of confronting life’s pains rather than trying to avoid them; of banishing escapism. It’s his first major work following 2022’s GOLD and 2020's To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol 1. It also directly follows his EP Cremisan: Prologue To A Blade (recorded in Palestine in summer 2024) and his poetry book Looking for my value: Prologue to a blade, both of which were released in late 2024 as precursors to this album.

Across A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, DePlume’s reflections on healing, dignity, and struggle are communicated through a stirring assemblage of disparate musics: ghostly and ancient folk melodies, groove-anchored maelstroms of swirling folk-jazz, elegant string arrangements that strike a midpoint between Ravel and Gainsbourg (courtesy of Macie Stewart), disembodied voices reconfiguring into the shape of a post-modern Greek chorus, noir atmosphere, and allegoric, troubadouric song. Throughout, DePlume's intimate, confessional croon (a la Donovan or Devendra Banhart) and vibrato-laced tenor saxophone playing (a la Getatchew Mekurya) convey, with a startling humanistic touch, everything from dejected fragility to resolute strength.

About the album’s title, DePlume writes: “A blade, because a blade is whole, it has forgiven itself, and because it will take a small piece of our opposite, for us to be complete. A blade has marked out these former selves on my hand, a blade made the lines that divine us and the blade is whole. A blade. While I forgive myself, and heal, and lead us in healing. We can only forgive each other once we forgive ourselves. We can only heal each other while we heal ourselves.”

Alabaster DePlume, voice, tenor and baritone sax, acoustic and electric guitar, bass, synths
Conrad Singh, electric guitar
Donna Thompson, drums, voice, vocal arrangement for Invincibility
Hannah Miller, cello
John Ellis, piano
Macie Stewart, violin, string arrangements
Mikey Kenney, violin, voice
Momoko Gill, voice, drums, string arrangement for Form a V
Rozi Plain, bass
Ruth Goller, bass, voice

Alabaster DePlume
Gus Fairbairn, aka Alabaster DePlume, has a pocketful of phrases that he uses all the time whether he’s walking down the street or holding court with musicians and an audience. For a long time the Mancunian would tell anyone who’d listen that they were doing very well. More recently, it’s another phrase which has a similar effect and which belies his unwavering commitment to personal vulnerability and collective politics: “Don’t forget you’re precious.”

A process that is people-first not product-first ensures that his music is unique; often gem-like. Alabaster DePlume’s songs are built on sonorous circular melodies and luminous tones that transmit calmness and generosity in warm waves–unless they’re raging against complacency and the everyday inhumanity of end times capitalism. Most importantly, he brings a valuable transparency to his work. “This is what I’m really doing,” he says. “I want to talk about why I’m doing this, and how I’m doing this."

His albums include Gold - Go Forward In The Courage of Your Love (2022), To Cy and Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 (2020), and Peach (2015). Originally from Manchester, he lives in London, based at the Total Refreshment Centre.

This album contains no booklet.