Alabaster DePlume

When Gus Fairbairn, aka Alabaster DePlume, says “Don't forget you're precious”, he’s not puffing our ego like some self-help evangelist nor spewing sycophantic clichés like an AI chatbot. He means every thoughtfully and meticulously chosen word. And that’s why his music manifests, not as empty escapism, but as a painful, fully grounded healing journey. Built on the foundation of a fragile, almost trembling, saxophone and a spoken word narration that doesn’t hide behind fancy arrangements, DePlume creates a sonic cross-genre universe that balances between the interiority of spiritual jazz and the darkness and vulnerability of folk. He explores this soundscape further in his latest work A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, a musically expansive album released by the eclectic label International Anthem. Athens Jazz is proud to welcome this extraordinary musician from Manchester who will take the stage, not in some vain pursuit of applause, but to bare his unique, unmediated truth and make it our own.