Today, Alabaster DePlume — the acclaimed London-based saxophonist, singer, songwriter, activist, orator, and poet-philosopher — announces A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, a daring new album out March 7 on International Anthem. 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, Alabaster’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. Pre-order / Pre-save A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole 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.”
In the video for the rousing and cinematic lead track “Oh My Actual Days” — directed by artist Rebecca Salvadori, who also shot the album cover — DePlume, bathed in blue light, is pensive as he recounts past self-conceptions and strives towards internal acceptance and, ultimately, healing. About the instrumental song, whose title “Oh My Actual Days” refers to a London colloquialism that can be translated into American English as “oh my f-ing god,” DePlume says: “We can, if we choose, read this phrase as a call to the divinity of the moment we are in. Wherever we are, whatever is happening, it is our own life – a life that is made up of the time (the days – the actual days) that we spend. And we call to this – the only real thing that we have. Our time. Whatever we are experiencing it belongs to us, it is the ‘actual’ moment we are in. And it is divine. This is the introduction to the album.”
Watch the video “Oh My Actual Days” here.
As with all of DePlume’s work, A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole is driven by intention. In this case, a desire to interrogate the concept of healing. As DePlume shared with music writer Liz Pelly, who wrote an essay to accompany the album as digital liner notes: “When I meet people who love my work I ask them, ‘what do people need?’ Many of them were answering ‘healing’, so I worked on that, first of all by healing myself. I found that it was an activity I could choose, and that it had a lot to do with my ownership of myself, dignity and independence. Instead of waiting for healing to ‘happen to me’ I could heal myself and own myself. That is what this album is.”
Read Liz Pelly’s essay on the album here. This self-reflection and personal evaluation led DePlume to author his poetry book, Looking for my value: prologue to a blade. The seventy pages of verse (much of which were repurposed as lyrics throughout A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole) ponder the pursuit for strength of self within a community, alongside meditations on the paradox of the blade.
DePlume will be touring the United States, the UK, and Europe in support of A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole throughout the spring — see full dates below, more information here. US dates will feature multi-instrumentalist Shazad Ismaily (“one of music’s most coveted collaborators,” according to The New York Times) plus more musicians TBA, with saxophonist/composer Patrick Shiroishi doing supporting opening sets at every show. DePlume’s band for the UK/EU tour will feature percussionist Julian Sartorius, drummer Seb Rochford, bassist Ruth Goller, and Mikey Kenney on strings. More guests to be announced.
Full album credits here. "Oh My Actual Days" is out now, buy/stream it here.
A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole is out March 7, preorder/save it here.
TRACKLIST
Oh My Actual Days
Thank You My Pain
Invincibility
Form a V
A Paper Man
Who Are You Telling, Gus
Prayer For My Sovereign Dignity
Kuzushi
Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem
Too True
That Was My Garden
TOUR DATES
March 14 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
March 15 - Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
March 16 - New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
March 18 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
March 19 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
March 21 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
March 22 - Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
March 23 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
March 25 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent
March 28 - Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
April 29 - Norwich, UK @ Norwich Arts Centre
April 30 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
May 1 - Newcastle, UK @ Gosforth Civic Hall
May 2 - Glasgow, UK @ Mono
May 3 - Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
May 6 - Bristol, UK @ Trinity Centre
May 7 - Exeter, UK @ Phoenix
May 8 - Southampton, UK @ Papillon
May 9 - London, UK @ Hackney Church
May 10 - Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
May 15 - Istanbul, TK @ Salon IKSV
May 16 - Warsaw, PL @ Niebo
May 17 - Berlin, DE @ XJAZZ!
May 21 - Paris, FR @ Le Petit Bain
May 22 - Lille, FR @ L'Aéronef
May 23 - Brussels, BE @ La Botanique
May 24 - Amsterdam, NL @ Zonnehuis
May 25 - Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje
May 26 - Rotterdam, NL @ Bird
June 1 - Torino, Italy @ Bunker (Jazz Is Dead)
June 7 - Cluj-Napoca, RO @ Jazz In The Park
July 2/5 - Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
July 4 - Sete, FR @ Worldwide
July 17 - Molde NO, @ Moldejazz
Stay connected with Alabaster DePlume:
Website | Instagram | Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter
Stay connected with International Anthem:
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