The Corner of a Sphere

Lost Map Records are excited to announce the wonderfully uncategorisable new album The Corner of a Sphere by London and Manchester based spoken word artist, writer and saxophonist Angus Fairbairn AKA Alabaster dePlume. The result of monthly development concerts that brought together different disciplines and communities at the Total Refreshment Centre in Dalston, the album will be released as a vinyl LP, digital download and via all major streaming services on May 4, 2018. Informed by such diverse experiences playing in polyrhythmic punk bands in his youth, tuition in jazz and Indian classical music, five years as an accompanist for other artists on international tours and ten years of working with adults with learning difficulties, Alabaster dePlume’s output is thoroughly special. A disarming, unpredictable, wilfully awkward and totally life-affirming meld of richly evocative poetry and singing, sweet soft music, deadpan comedy, Corbynist left-wing political fire and righteous helpings of right-on good vibes, as encapsulated best by Angus’s positive mantra: “you’re doing very well, it’s not always easy”. When he plays live and in his element, Angus seeks to elevate audiences out of their comfort zone, by taking a behavioural approach to performance. “I want to make use of my natural, semi-vain concern for ‘what is my effect on the people around me right now?’ in order to frame certain thoughts and feelings,” he explains. No two shows are the same, each is a collector’s item. The Corner of a Sphere is Alabaster DePlume’s fourth album to date and his first for Lost Map, following three successful self-releases on vinyl, CD and digital formats in collaboration with Manchester’s Debt Records. Featuring tracks including ‘Is It Enough’, a by turns funny and sad take on obsessive consumption and how greed is not a sustainable motive for activity, the whimsically cosmos-gazing ‘They Put The Stars Far Away’ (“What would you do with the stars? Try and smoke them?”) and uplifting ode to humankind at its worse and best ‘Be Nice To People’, it’s Angus’s finest record yet. The Corner of a Sphere is a provocative invitation to reconsider where the distinctions between styles and genres and modes of performance lie, and whether or not we even need those distinctions in any case. Angus has built an audience in East London through his growing monthly development residency PEACH at the Total Refreshment Centre in Dalston. Featuring friends and special guests and a different improvisational live band every time, it has been described by Laura Barton from The Guardian as “one of the most thrilling performances I’ve seen this year; a reminder of how vital and adventurous music can be”. Three recent live clips from PEACH have been shared close to a thousand times with views of more than 120,000. The show also enjoys notoriety in Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh. Alabaster DePlume has elsewhere performed for BBC Radio 3, National Theatre and at clubs and theatres around UK. He occasionally moonlights as a saxophonist for artists including Liz Green, Honeyfeet and Lost Map’s own Rozi Plain.