The term ‘avant-garde’ tends to get thrown around egregiously in the world of music, especially by up-and-coming acts who have yet to realize that their sound falls within more recognizable genres. So when an artist authentically encapsulates ‘avant-garde’ in a way that’s not just ‘weird for the sake of weird’, it can be pretty refreshing. To that point, saxophonist-poet Alabaster DePlume (the nom de plume of London’s Gus Fairbairn) continues to challenge the conventions of contemporary music in a way that’s astonishingly accessible.
Going back to his 2012 debut Copernicus – The Good Book of No, Alabaster DePlume’s carved out a sound that complements his own complex perspectives and used songwriting as nourishment to help himself (and others) get over whatever life throws at them. That tradition of healing and reckoning continues on the nineteen-piece epic GOLD – Go Forward in the Courage of Your Love, ADP’s upcoming seventh full-length that drops this Friday. Mapped out well before a single note was recorded, GOLD offers an experience that flows together thanks to Fairbairn’s poetic, omnipresent narration. Six of the nineteen tracks are already out, and are joined today by GOLD‘s final single, “Now (Stars Are Lit)”, a haunting instrumental that eerily illuminates vocals, sax, strings, and light percussion for one of DePlume’s most mesmerizing compositions to date.
–Jack Anderson
