2/2/22 New Alabaster Deplume Music + Video Out Today /// + Shows In Brooklyn, Chicago, Knoxville, Los Angeles, London
Alabaster Deplume Shares New Double Single “Mrs Calamari” B/w “who Is A Fool”
Today 2/22/22 London-based poet, singer, saxophonist, orator, activist and inspiration to many Alabaster DePlume releases another set of digital singles – the instrumental A-side “Mrs Calamari” and the mid-tempo freak-folk grooving B-side “Who Is A Fool” – from his forthcoming album GOLD (out April 1st on 2xLP, CD, and Digital via International Anthem, Lost Map & Total Refreshment Centre).
Stream the new singles here.
Video for “Mrs Calamari"
“Mrs Calamari” also comes with a gorgeous video, which is the directorial debut of Dan “Danalogue” Leavers (member of UK electro/jazz monoliths The Comet Is Coming), shot on 8mm film.
Danalogue says: “The film explores the archetypal hero's journey, the symbolism of circles (transformation/death/life cycles). Mrs Calamari is represented as a squid goddess, a teaching of the 'other’. It is essentially a story about growth and being guided by love. I felt strongly about the magical, organic sound of the music, recorded live and to analogue tape. This gave me inspiration to film on Super8, an antiquated format that holds within a mystery and timelessness.”
Don’t Forget You’re Precious
DePlume’s new video and new singles follow the February 2nd release of the “Don’t Forget You’re Precious” b/w “The Sound Of My Feet On This Earth Is A Song To Your Spirt” double single. The A-side single “Don’t Forget You’re Precious” came via a powerful video by Jordan Copeland, and was released to a torrent of praise, including rave reviews in NPR Music, Clash Magazine, Stereogum, Aquarium Drunkard, and Pitchfork, who said: “The contrast between DePlume’s dry delivery and the sheer sweetness of his composition is hilarious yet effective. It is also sincere. While we’re inundated by self-help culture selling personal optimization, DePlume simply asks us, quietly, to remember one thing.”
Debut US Shows in March
Today’s announcement also follows news shared by DePlume about his first ever US tour, which starts March 19th and includes stops in Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he will be artist in residence. In each city, DePlume has invited a local artist from the International Anthem family to curate his ensemble. Details and ticket links below:
Saturday March 19th at Public Records in Brooklyn, NYC (ticket link)
Alabaster's New York show ensemble will be curated by jaimie branch. This event, part of International Anthem's new quarterly residency at Public Records, is co-presented by the label & Qobuz. Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer will open the show, celebrating the release of their new album Recordings from the Åland Islands.
Wednesday March 23rd at Sleeping Village in Chicago, IL (ticket link)
The Chicago show ensemble will be curated by Monique Golding of Black Monument Ensemble.
Sunday March 27th at Big Ears in Knoxville, TN (ticket link)
As an "artist in residence" for the Big Ears Festival, DePlume will hold space and play several sets ahead of his Sunday marquee performance at The Standard.
Wednesday March 30th at The Lodge Room in Los Angeles, CA (ticket link)
The Los Angeles show ensemble will be curated by Carlos Niño and Jesse Peterson. This event is presented by Aquarium Drunkard, with Mia Doi Todd opening.
London Album Release Show
Also last week, tickets were released for the GOLD album release party, which will take place on May 1st at the Village Underground in London. The show is presented by Total Refreshment Centre, with special guest musicians and DJs announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets/info here
About 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 every day 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.”
Read DePlume's full bio by Emma Warren here.
GOLD, the follow-up to Alabaster DePlume's widely-acclaimed, 2020-released cinematic instrumental LP To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1, introduces the world to the artist’s truest self. That is... though DePlume’s now known across the globe as the saxophonist who created that collection of wonderful, wordless music, he’s most known to fervent fans in his home zone of London, UK, as an outspoken poet and orator, beloved for his inspiring words of encouragement and sing-a-long-able songs about vulnerability, humanity, and courage.
Recorded across 2 weeks at London's legendary Total Refreshment Centre, GOLD is a sprawling double album that finds DePlume expressing both sides of his artistic character beautifully: (1) an articulate singer and songwriter who invokes the melodious crooning of Donovan as much as Devendra Banhart or Syd Barrett, whose tunes are almost like mini-sermons, full of existential comedy and spiritual enlightenment; and (2) a brilliant composer of simple, soothing, and viscerally nourishing instrumental melodies, with a gift for expanding them into intrepid collective improvisations, led by a delicate and distinguished saxophone tone that conjures the fluttery sweetness of Ethiopique woodwind player Getatchew Mekurya.
Read the full story about GOLD, as written beautifully by Emma Warren, on our Bandcamp page for the album.
*Deluxe Vinyl Package*
Obsidian Vortex color vinyl
GOLD comes on two 140-gram vinyl LPs (pressed by Pallas in Germany) inside a heavyweight reverse-board gatefold jacket stamped with metallic gold foil (!!!) and flooded black inner pockets, plus a two-sided insert sheet, IARC obi strip, and dome-patterned inner-sleeves.
And, as always, we have a limited edition color vinyl option for the first pressing only, available via our Bandcamp page only, which is 777 copies of *Obsidian Vortex* color vinyl.
Order a copy via our Bandcamp page today!
Distribution via RedEye for US, Canada, North & South America
This album will also be available on Compact Disc (in a deluxe 4-panel digipack), on Classic Black Vinyl (same specs as listed above), and for independent retailers only, worldwide, an indie exclusive limited edition color vinyl variant.
Retailers in the United States or Canada or anywhere else inside of North, South and Central America... Please reach out to your sales rep at RedEye Worldwide if you are interested in making wholesale purchases of this album, or any other album in our catalog. Don't yet have a RedEye rep? Please just reach out to us and we'll get you hooked up!
Distribution via !K7 for Europe, UK, Australia, and ROW
On all the same formats mentioned above, this album will be distributed by our good friends at !K7 and their various territory partners in Europe, UK, Australia, and everywhere else in the world outside of North & South America.
If you are a retailer or store with questions about wholesale or are just looking to get some of our records... we'd like to make things as easy for you as possible, please do not hesitate to reach out!!!
((( all photos of Alabaster by Chris Almeida )))
