*Announcing* ALABASTER DEPLUME - A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole /// lead single "Oh My Actual Days" out today, new album out March 7th, 2025
*announcing*
IARC0090
Alabaster DePlume
A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole
LP, CD, DD out March 7th, 2025
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 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.
(( photo by Alexander Massek ))
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.”
"Oh My Actual Days"
Also available on all digital music platforms today is the album's rousing and cinematic lead track “Oh My Actual Days." The track also comes via video directed by artist Rebecca Salvadori (who also shot the album cover image). In the video, 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 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."
2025 Tour Dates
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.
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
Deluxe Vinyl Package
A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole comes on a 140g vinyl LP in heavyweight jacket with photo insert sheet, IARC 2025 obi strip & poly-lined inner sleeve. Pressed at Pallas in Germany, with lacquers cut by Daniel K @ SST.
Available on limited edition 'That Was My Garden' color vinyl for $29 USD.
Also available on classic black vinyl for $24 USD.
The 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥 ‘𝟮𝟱 𝗕𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗟𝗘 is now available !!
It is indeed time for a new season of new releases and the Winter ‘25 Bundle collects all 3 yet-to-be-announced new LPs, (including Alabaster DePlume's A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole) and ships them to you - the fervent, faithful collector of our output - as a single parcel.
Purchase gets you a bundle-exclusive discount of 10% off the LP prices as well as a discounted shipping cost.
The bundle will ship from our warehouses in the US, EU, and UK, but don’t wait too long, the quantity available in each warehouse is limited! Early purchase is recommended to ensure the lowest possible shipping, tax, and VAT costs.
All items will ship together in one package around March 7th, so you will receive one LP by its street date and the other two releases shortly ahead of their release dates. Bandcamp downloads will be sent via email for all the releases by, or on, the ship date. Thank you as always for your trust in our label’s output and for your support <𝟯
