A Blade Because a Blade is Whole is the latest album from London-based composer-poet-activist-improviser Alabaster DePlume, his first major work following 2022s GOLD and 2020’s To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol 1.

The 11-song album covers all of DePlumes musical touchstones: lush and gentle instrumentals informed by ghostly ancient folk melodies; groove-focused rhythm explorations as a bed for self-searching spoken declamations; sweeping and beautiful string arrangements (in this case by Macie Stewart) set against his trademark vibrato-infused tenor sax whispermoan.