feature photo: Eoin Carey
Alabaster DePlume is an English bloke who writes songs, leads recording sessions, plays saxophone and serves as a social activist who blends that side of him with his musician side however he can. He’s made some four or five albums stretching back to 2012, attracting some critical acclaim along the way – UK music tastemaker Gilles Peterson digs him — but despite all that and a fucking cool name, he’s not (yet) known here in the USA.
That may about to change now that he’s hooked up with Chicago-based International Anthem, the record label’s first signing of an artist from Europe. Luckily for DePlume, he hadn’t had to work too hard for his de-facto American debut. To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 collects the instrumentals he had already recorded and sprinkled throughout his prior albums Copernicus, The Jester and Peach, plus a couple of new tracks.
Though many instrumentals are excuses to jam, DePlume’s presentation is certainly on the subdued and contemplated side of things. These are melodies that sound old, much of it inspired by largely forgotten folk forms originating everywhere from the Far East to his native British Isles. I suppose you could attach stanzas to these songs and sing them, and it wouldn’t at all feel out of place to do so. If you did, it would probably draw comparisons to, say, The Low Anthem or Sufjan Stevens. But the melodies stand on their own, and the old/new styled arrangements applied to them often make them sound even better.
DePlume plays his saxophone nothing like a jazzbo, but his approach is perfectly suited for the material at hand. That heavy vibrato he’s got going might at times call to mind Albert Ayler but he’s much more interested in making his instrument function in place of a human voice. Maybe that’s why I’m not really missing the lyrics at all. The raspy quality of DePlume’s sax for the beginning of “Not My Ask” is about as close to making a saxophone resemble a person singing as it gets, but even as he settles back into his familiar quaver, DePlume is clearly using his instrument to carry out unknown lyrics.
The discreet production touches serve the music well. “Visit Croatia” is a simple pattern, or actually, a pair of alternating patterns played over and over. The Old World format (string section) provides enough majestic flair that to do more with the harmony would just mess up a good thing. “What’s Missing” is simply-strummed tune infused with psychedelic touches, i.e., background analog synthesizer sounds, leaving DePlume to focus on giving the sound emotional weight, and a wordless vocal drifts by to enhance the slight eeriness of it.
“Song of the Foundling” resembles a hoary Celtic dance tune with chants set way in the back, coming to the fore during a central moment at the end to engage in a call and response with DePlume’s horn. “The Lucky Ones” finds DePlume paired with Dan ‘Danalogue’ Leavers on piano, spooling out a lovely Japanese styled folk melody. DePlume’s saxophone takes on an especially sweet tone for “Whisky Story Time,” transforming a folk tune into society dance band music from the 1920s. The baroque vibe continues with the charming waltz “Not Now, Jesus.”
“Why, Buzzardman, Why” takes on an unhurried rural mien amid a small string section, while “I Hope” is a return to a conventional rhythm section, churning out a rhapsodic waltz with all acoustic instruments save for a softly strummed electric guitar.
Whatever obscure music forms Alabaster DePlume encounters, he is able to take something old and make it sound fresh. It’s all in the little things he does to his songs.
To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 is planned for release on February 28, 2020 through International Anthem Recording Co..
