With his perennial positivity and hankering for off-the-cuff, open-ended spontaneity, Alabaster DePlume makes warm, world-wise music that feels both familiar – homey, even – and mercurial.
A new album for International Anthem called Come With Fierce Grace (a name inspired by real-life words of wisdom from a fan), arrives as a sort of next, natural chapter in a story first told across the Manchester-born multi-hyphenate’s 2022 LP GOLD. This makes sense, though, given it can be traced to the same flurry of creative activity that birthed that very record – and time spent at vital London music hub and jazz scene hotspot Total Refreshment Centre accompanied by up-for-it affiliates from the constantly-collaborating jazz underground.
Blending music from label mates and affiliates, the musician, poet and spoken word artist conjures an unhurried mix that, despite its earnest aims and uplifting characteristics, reaches its emotional endpoint via a different path to DePlume’s spoken word-driven works. “Where I often revert to using my spoken voice to deliver messages of reassurance or appreciation, I’m aiming to express such things in this mix using song selection and a playful approach to transitions, ” he tells us.
“Overdubbing some tenor saxophone on top of the songs here in my studio – to blur or highlight tension and resolve in the transition between the keys of the different pieces – I hope to represent some of the artists I work with (who might join me at KOKO on 10 November, or elsewhere),” he continues, “as well as work from my International Anthem crew. [That’s] alongside other artists who have long, or always, inspired me – or brought me those feelings of hope, recognition, joy and humanity that I wish upon you, whoever you may be, today.” Sit back and sink in.
Sunday Mix: Alabaster DePlume
Sunday Mix: Alabaster DePlume
With his perennial positivity and hankering for off-the-cuff, open-ended spontaneity, Alabaster DePlume makes warm, world-wise music that feels both familiar – homey, even – and mercurial.
A new album for International Anthem called Come With Fierce Grace (a name inspired by real-life words of wisdom from a fan), arrives as a sort of next, natural chapter in a story first told across the Manchester-born multi-hyphenate’s 2022 LP GOLD. This makes sense, though, given it can be traced to the same flurry of creative activity that birthed that very record – and time spent at vital London music hub and jazz scene hotspot Total Refreshment Centre accompanied by up-for-it affiliates from the constantly-collaborating jazz underground.
Blending music from label mates and affiliates, the musician, poet and spoken word artist conjures an unhurried mix that, despite its earnest aims and uplifting characteristics, reaches its emotional endpoint via a different path to DePlume’s spoken word-driven works. “Where I often revert to using my spoken voice to deliver messages of reassurance or appreciation, I’m aiming to express such things in this mix using song selection and a playful approach to transitions, ” he tells us.
“Overdubbing some tenor saxophone on top of the songs here in my studio – to blur or highlight tension and resolve in the transition between the keys of the different pieces – I hope to represent some of the artists I work with (who might join me at KOKO on 10 November, or elsewhere),” he continues, “as well as work from my International Anthem crew. [That’s] alongside other artists who have long, or always, inspired me – or brought me those feelings of hope, recognition, joy and humanity that I wish upon you, whoever you may be, today.” Sit back and sink in.
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