Alabaster DePlume is a Manchester UK-born, London-based bandleader, composer, saxophonist, activist and orator. He’s a resident at the legendary London creative hub Total Refreshment Centre,
a recording artist for the off-grid Scottish Hebridean island label Lost Map, and now the latest arrival into Chicago-based International Anthem’s growing family of progressive musical explorationists.
Tracklisting LP
A1 - Visit Croatia
A2 - What's Missing
A3 - Song of the Foundling
A4 - Whisky Story Time
A5 -Not Now, Jesus
A6 - If You're Sure You Want To
B1 - The Lucky Ones (with Danalogue)
B2 -Why, Buzzardman, Why
B3 - Not My Ask
B4 - Turpentine
B5 - I Hope
To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 has a suitably individual genesis. Alabaster DePlume was working for Ordinary Lifestyles, a charity in North Manchester UK which supports people with disabilities to live in their own homes and to live fulfilling lives. Specifically, he was working with the titular Cy and Lee. His job was to get the guys socializing and he did this by making up songs with them. They’d make up melodies together, humming tunes in the house when they needed something calm, or when they were haring round the city in a battered car. DePlume would record these impromptu sessions in his phone, then go to the studio and use the material as starting points for songs. He also ran music sessions for Cy, Lee and their friends. “People would focus on a central point, tuning in to one another. There are things we can’t put into words, which can be expressed with sound and music. These guys have fewer words than us, some of them have none. When we put some feelings into a music expression – that’s liberation.” It’s a method he uses in live shows wherever possible, placing himself and the musicians in the round. The aim is to maximize the creative benefits that a community of players and listeners can bring to the music. It’s a collectivist and humanist approach to making music that sits underneath everything he does. This is music made for a reason. “I like the idea that we’re not just doing frivolous decoration. We’re doing work for society. I like to listen for what needs to be said.”
RIYL:
Arthur Russell’s First Thought Best Thought, The Ex, Don Cherry’s Holy Mountain, Mulatu Astatke, David Byrne’s Lead Us Not Into Temptation, The Dirty Three
