Tag Archives: Alabaster DePlume

Mixtape #166

02 December 2024

A prodigious young talent and one of the stalwarts of the Belgian jazz scene, Vitja Pauwels is one of the most distinctive, versatile and daring guitar players of his generation. Besides his membership and collaborations with the likes Naïma Joris, Bombataz, Warm Bad and Lara Rosseel, Pauwels’ remarkable body of work also includes two acclaimed solo records. Sprouted from a festival invitation, Pauwels put together his “dream” band under the name Early Life Forms, comprising Frederic Leroux, Casper Van De Velde and Laurens Dierickx, and also his hero Marc Ribot. Their one-off performance was recorded and released as a self-titled record last January, daringly walking a wire between jazz, latin, cuban, rock and improv with a touch of exoticism and cinematic explorations. Needless to say we're ecstatic to kick off the month with a rad mixtape put together by Pauwels. Press play already!

  1. Pascal Comelade – To The Last Imaginary Solutions [Because Music]
  2. Zanmari Baré – Mary Salangann [Cobalt]
  3. Latin Playboys – Ten Believers [Slash / Warner Bros. Records]
  4. PJ Harvey – On Battleship Hill [Island Records]
  5. Espen Reinertsen – Bjørnens Sang [SusannaSonata]
  6. Gustaf Ljunggren, Skúli Sverrisson – Vestegnsromantik [April Records]
  7. Morphine – Claire [Accurate Distortion]
  8. Lhasa De Sela – De Cara a la Pared [Tôt Ou Tard / Audiogram]
  9. Tom Waits – All Stripped Down [Island Records]
  10. Ali Farka Touré with Ry Cooder – Lasidan [Hannibal Records / World Circuit]
  11. Marvin Pontiac – Bring Me Rocks [Strange & Beautiful Music]
  12. Arto Lindsay – Complicity [For Life Records / Güt]
  13. Daniel Lanois – Iceland [Anti-]
  14. Alabaster Deplume – Visit Croatia [International Anthem / Total Refreshment Centre / Lost Map]
  15. Moondog – Bird’s Lament [Columbia Masterworks / CBS]
  16. Talk Talk – Myrrhman [Polydor / Verve]

Alabaster DePlume unveils Cremisan: Prologue To A Blade EP

15 October 2024

Photo: Sofia Lambrou

There’s wonderful news from ingenious and thought-provoking spoken word artist, bandleader, composer, saxophonist and activist Alabaster DePlume, who has just unveiled a new digital EP titled Cremisan: Prologue To A Blade, part of an upcoming larger project, Prologue To A Blade, which will also be ccompanied by his debut poetry book, Looking For My Value: Prologue To A Blade. The EP features two tracks recorded in Bethlehem, Palestine with local musicians, pianist Sami El Enani and Qanoun player Laith Albandak, and a third track, ‘Gifts Of Olive’, which references Refaat Alareer’s poem “If I Must Die”. DePlume comments:

“To set you up for what’s coming I’ve layered up these compositions in private, and with friends. It’s a prologue to what we’re bringing next. It ushers it in. I went towards things I feared, to be in the places where this music has come from. Places in the world and in myself, where dignity and sovereignty has its role in the work of healing.”

Head over to DePlume’s bandcamp to grab Cremisan: Prologue To A Blade EP, and for a taster of it, here’s the utterly compelling and beguiling opening track ‘Honeycomb’ featuring Sami El Enani.

Alabaster DePlume shares third single ‘Naked Like Water’ feat. Donna Thompson

22 August 2023

Photo: Chris Almeida

Before embarking on 2-month tour across the US, Alabaster DePlume gave us last week another glimpse into his upcoming new LP Come With Fierce Grace. ‘Naked Like Water’ is the the third and final single lifted from the album and it features drummer and vocalist Donna Thompson, who takes the lead, as the press release describes, “coaxing the group out of a kosmische-meets-spaghetti-western lockstep and into a freer, open, and unknown space.” Speaking about the track, she commented:

“whilst we were making this music a lot of different stories and energies were swapped. I feel like this particular moment in the session was about choosing to develop our decisions both on and off the tape and it was like a summoning to say ‘Right, this is where we go next’, something that is not always an available statement when dealing in our day to day.”

Listen to ‘Naked Like Water’ below and grab Come With Fierce Grace when it drops on September 8th through International Anthem.

Alabaster DePlume teases upcoming album with second single ‘Greek Honey Slick’ featuring Tom Skinner

27 July 2023

Photo: Chris Almeida

Following on from the tender and emotionally powerful ‘Did You Know‘, today Alabaster DePlume is bestowing us with another treat from his forthcoming album Come With Fierce Grace. Titled ‘Greek Honey Slick’, the new track features Tom Skinner and is infused with positive energy and beauty. Alabaster had this to say about it:

“Creating these things was itself a method of defeating thought, doubt, and ultimately fear, by being present in our hearts and bodies. Replacing the goal-oriented endgame demands of the mind, with an abundance of foolish playful life. I had dropped an enormous tub of organic Greek honey on my studio floor. This became an offering to the gods, to life, as we endeavoured to resist our cynical aspirations, by choosing in each moment the honest pleasure of interactive creation like big children, playing with the toys of the finest skills to which we’ve relentlessly devoted our lives. We have a responsibility to joy. If not that, then what else?”

Listen to ‘Greek Honey Slick’ below and grab the album when it’s out September 8th through International Anthem.

Alabaster DePlume announces new album Come With Fierce Grace

28 June 2023

Photo: Chris Almeida

A year on from the release of the magnificent and critically acclaimed GOLD, Alabaster DePlume has announced the release of a new album titled Come With Fierce Grace. All of the songs on the upcoming album were recorded during the same sessions as GOLD, but Come With Fierce Grace is not a collection of leftover material or outtakes. As the press release describes, “it’s a continuation of the organic collaborative and improvisational process that he established… almost as if GOLD has grown a new limb or aged into a new phase.” After spending most of 2022 touring GOLD, Alabaster spent the beginning of this year revisiting the material from the album sessions and guiding it towards a new becoming.

Come With Fierce Grace is mostly an instrumental affair, with the exception of a few tracks that feature vocal contributions from Momoko Gill (aka MettaShiba), Falle Nioke, and Donna Thompson. Alabaster thrives on collaborations and the new album features contributions from a wealth of talented artists, including Sarathy Korwar, Tom Skinner, Rozi Plain, Tom Herbert, Matthew Bourne, Ruth Goller, Conrad Singh, Ursula Russell and many more.

We’ll have to wait until September 8th for the record to be out through International Anthem but Alabaster has already shared a tender and emotionally powerful first offering, ‘Did You Know’,  featuring Momoko Gill on vocals. Take a listen below.

Alabaster DePlume unveils brand new single ‘Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem’

19 April 2023

Photo: Julia Foster

New music from ingenious, thought-provoking and unpredictable spoken word artist, bandleader, composer, saxophonist and activist Alabaster DePlume is always a blessing. He has today shared ‘Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem’, his first new single in a year, following the release of his magnificent album, GOLD, last year. Alabaster composed ‘Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem’ live in a Vienna soundcheck alongside Rozi Plain on bass, drummer Momoko Gill and Conrad Singh on guitar, collaborators he calls “one of the most creative yet resilient groups I’ve put together”. Speaking about the track, he comments:

“Even this very second, passing your eyes over these words, is a victory. Breathing, you are victorious. Childishly standing with my flag and my anthem of “I’m alive” I’m victorious. See inside, how you have your own permission, to be. Celebrated or not by others, in one moment, always, or never. You know you are here and you know this is a victory. We can always be more ourselves, and we can always be less so. But there is no ceremony we must wait for, no test, no judgement, before we can sing our victory anthem.”

In addition to the digital release, the single will be available as a 7” flexi disc on May 19th though International Anthem, backed by a new digital-only track called “Child Playing In Forbidden Ruins,”.

Now lend your ears to the jubilant ‘Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem’.