Stop whatever you’re doing, because Alabaster DePlume is back! 

The Manchester-born, London-based bandleader, composer, saxophonist, activist and orator returns with a three-track EP. The release contains ‘Visit Croatia’ which featured on his recent album To Cy & Lee Instrumentals Vol. 1, and two previously unreleased tracks, ‘The Good Wine’ and ‘Black Drifts’.

“One day, I realized I was waiting for someone to give me permission to make this,” says DePlume of ‘Visit Croatia’. “And at the same time, I realized – no-one could ever give me permission to make this. Not because they thought it was a bad thing. But because they didn’t know what it was. I can’t give you permission to do your awesome s**t. But someone else on this earth can. And I don’t mean Cy & Lee, and I don’t mean Bernie Sanders, and I don’t mean Karen either.”

Speaking about the two unreleased cuts he explains: “They are two of the pieces prepared around the release Peach. Created in (optional, pre-lockdown) isolation, with the aim of celebrating human connections through the sheer act of yearning for them. I love music, and words and performance, but it will never be as good as people. So, if I’m going to get my work done, I must sometimes go away from people. In the middle of a heavy gigging schedule I chose to take two cassette recorders somewhere I could be unreachable, for a week. I made many things there, including these tunes. It was winter. I chopped firewood. A chinook flew over my head. I gradually came to trust myself, to be sincere.”

The artwork for the release was created in the Alaskan wilderness by the mega talented Jaimie Branch.

Press play and listen to three ray’s of sunshine to light up these dark days.

Visit Croatia is out now via International Anthem. Buy here.