News Stories about Alabaster dePlume

“I Feel Good”, the opening track from Alabaster dePlume‘s latest album Peach, has received public and critical acclaim from all quarters (even being described during BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction as “cheerfully unsettling”). Well now you can take a glimpse behind the curtain of the promo video in this little film by Wilf Merttens. There is also a blog about the occasion by Alabaster himself here. The official video for “I Feel Good” can be watched here.

Peach is now on general release. If you’d like a vinyl copy visit Qrates to pre-order/pledge.

The much-anticipated new album by Alabaster dePlume is now on general release, available from all the usual digital retailers and Alabaster’s online store.

A limited edition vinyl version is available as a pre-order from QRATES.

Here are a few words about the record…

A peach is a sweet and soft and good thing with a stone in the middle, and this is an album about being a person. Smartphones, analogue tape, valve microphones, computers, group games and a grand banquet were used to create this collection of songs, tunes and monologues, that use a series of contradictions to talk about being alive.

Long-term collaborators John Ellis (piano) and Paddy Steer (percussion, bass, lapsteel, synth) join Angus Fairbairn (vocal, tenor sax) along with eleven other musicians and nearly a hundred other voices in presenting sounds likened to Ethiopian jazz and Japanese folk music. Scripts and vocal delivery evoke Ivor Cutler, Emo Philips and Leonard Cohen, for this combination of theatre, live-captured music, songs, humour and philosophy.

It is a unique collection, made by unusual means designed around the artistry and conveyance of its many contributors. Created over three years in London and Manchester, it’ll be celebrated in those two towns on the dates below, following its vinyl and digital release on Manchester label Debt Records, on 28th September 2015.

A composer, musician and performer, Alabaster DePlume (Angus Fairbairn) has toured northern Europe, appeared on UK national radio and developed theatre for Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin. His many combined arts projects are based around music, and personal inclusion. In this, his third album, he has employed as many voices as he can, in conveying a method of survival he’s been taught, he says, by everyone he’s met.

Hope grows naturally, like a
dandelion between the bricks.
I feel good…

Album launch party: 4th October at The Wonder Inn, Manchester, UK.

Here’s the first track “I Feel Good”:

Alabaster dePlume‘s new LP Peach is on general release from Friday 2nd October.

The launch party will take place in Manchester at 19:30 on Sunday 4th October in the main room of The Wonder Inn. Support comes from Avital Raz and Pascal Makonese. Alabaster will be joined onstage by long-time collaborators John Ellis and Paddy Steer. Tickets available here. There is a facebook event page you can join here for updates.

Watch the brilliant video for the opening track “I Feel Good” here:

“Hope grows naturally like a dandelion between the bricks…”

A somber man addresses us with his wisdom, while around him the joy of many makes him a fool.

Alabaster is telling us “I Feel Good”, backed by an orchestral score. Behind him, people with painted skin are laughing, playing, fighting, and pulling his walls down. They behave like live humans beings, while Alabaster tries to tell us how he manages to live. The actions are revealed through a single tracking back shot.

In this film, the human interactions evoke the individual will required to persevere in daily life. The lone character addressing us with his obstinate resolve to remain positive is swamped by a colourful cast whose heedless behaviour makes a mockery of him, and a ruin of his surroundings. Watching the film, we can identify with the central character surrounded by a world of chaotic and irrational events.

Script, lead role, score and audio recording – Angus Fairbairn
Director – Melodie Roulaud
DOP – Leo Naessens
GRIP – Hardy Damavand Saleh

Made using group games from Misha Gloubman / Sheila Heti and Clive Barker, and the full input of the cast. Filmed in a gallery under railway arches in Waterloo, London.

GAMES PLAYERS:
Paul Blakemore
Sam Buckley
Will Calderbank
Oliver Conway
Danyal Dhondy
Susan Fong
Chloe Frejaaville
Justin Gartrey
Liz Greenfield
Anna Higgie
Dominie Hooper
Matthew ‘Jell’ Jennings
Sally Jenkinson
Wilf Merttens
Sam Reader
Stan Skinny
Holi-May Thomas

www.alabasterdeplume.com
www.melodieroulaud.com/