UK jazz and art pop musician Alabaster DePlume has announced a new album, A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, due March 7 via International Anthem (pre-order). About the title, he says:
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.
In an essay by Liz Pelly accompanying the album, Alabaster added, “When I meet people who love my work I ask them, ‘what do people need?’ Many of them were answering ‘healing’, so I worked on that, first of all by healing myself. I found that it was an activity I could choose, and that it had a lot to do with my ownership of myself, dignity and independence. Instead of waiting for healing to ‘happen to me’ I could heal myself and own myself. That is what this album is.”
The first single is the minimal, quietly-stirring “Oh My Actual Days,” a colloquialism that Alabaster says is the British equivalent to “oh my f-ing god.” He continues, “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.”
The new song comes with a video directed by Rebecca Salvadori, who also shot the album cover. Check it out below.
Alabaster also announced a tour, and his band on the US dates will feature Shahzad Ismaily and more TBA. Opening sets on that tour will come from Patrick Shiroishi. Things kick off in Philly on March 14, followed by New York shows on March 15 at Tubby’s in Kingston and March 16 at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. All dates are listed below.
Tracklist
Oh My Actual Days
Thank You My Pain
Invincibility
Form a V
A Paper Man
Who Are You Telling, Gus
Prayer For My Sovereign Dignity
Kuzushi
Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem
Too True
That Was My Garden
Alabaster DePlume — 2025 Tour Dates
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 27 – 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