Angel in Plainclothes
With his new album Angel in Plainclothes, Angelo De Augustine shares a multi-year-long journey of healing and renewal. After collapsing and being hospitalized with an undiagnosed illness in early 2022, the Southern California-based singer/songwriter endured an arduous journey of re-learning how to walk, talk, see, hear, play music, and sing again; abilities most people take for granted. Once he was able to return to writing and recording, De Augustine welcomed others into his creative process for the first time in years. The end result is a reverent album. His most inspired and powerful work yet.
Written, recorded, arranged, produced, and mixed by De Augustine at his recording studio, A Secret Place, Angel in Plainclothes emerged from a radically different mental and emotional space. “When I made Toil and Trouble I was in a really bad state, having just been released from the hospital and only about halfway through the recording of the album. I had accepted that I was going to die and that I should do all I could to finish the record,” says De Augustine. “I didn't believe that I was going to survive the illness, let alone ever make music again. The experience unfortunately broke me and everything that I thought that I knew or could count on,” he further explains. “With this new record, I’m trying to pick up the pieces of who I was and figure out who I am now. I am on a journey where I feel like I may have been given a second chance at life, and I’d like to live it.”
Angelo created the album’s sound with a wide array of musical instruments- a largely antique collection, including such oddities as a Marxophone (a fretless zither played with metal hammers), and a bowed Aquarion (a marimba-esque instrument equipped with glass keys). Along with contracting a string arranger Oliver Hill ( whose credits include Kevin Morby and Helado Negro). De Augustine enlisted the help of musicians like harpist Leng Bian, background vocalist/percussionist Wendy Fraser, and past collaborator Thomas Bartlett (producer of De Augustine’s 2019 breakthrough album Tomb, who’s worked with such eclectic artists as St. Vincent and Bebel Gilberto). “I had to prioritize my health, which meant being easier on myself and allowing other musicians in to help lighten the load.”
In a haunting introduction, Angel in Plainclothes opens with his heartfelt elegy, “Empty Shell.” The first song created for the album reveals De Augustine’s powerful melodies and poignant lyrics ("Bury the needle past marrow and bone / Relax into meadows ‘neath stars dead and gone / To cope with your loss and pay off the cost”). Another example of brilliant songwriting occurs on “Spirit Of The Unknown,” a hopeful quest to connect to God’s healing (“All my life’s a distant memory / Apples on the tree / The sun over the sea / Another melody / Veil of night upon my mystic rose / So the story goes/ Now her petals close / I loved her I suppose / I’ve been waiting for the winter’s end / And the time when spring will come again”).
De Augustine delivers a hypnotic piece on the standout single “Mirror Mirror”–a collective of train whistles, electric guitars, off-kilter blown out drums, and a zither-like object known as a bowed psaltery ("Tell me your mother in heaven won’t cry in vain / The way you treat your life like it’s just a game / Tumbling down like an endless waterfall") “Usually when I make music, I’ll sit down with one instrument and write the song. In ‘Mirror Mirror,’ I didn't stick to this principle and was messing around with the tape machine’s varispeed function- seeing what would happen if I slowed down what I’d recorded on the bowed psaltery, creating an unusual droning noise. The song came from experimenting with layering sound in a very free way and watching as the structure of a song revealed itself.”
The only song on Angel in Plainclothes to feature a co-producer, “The Cure” came to life in collaboration with producer/musician Jonathan Wilson (Angel Olsen, Father John Misty), who also played drums on the track. Recorded at both De Augustine’s and Wilson’s studios (and featuring Bartlett on electric piano), “The Cure” unfolds, reflecting on how chronic illness can often mirror the cycle of addiction (“I’ll give you wings and fill your breath / Take your life and give you death / And I’ll take till nothing’s left”).
Since the completion of Angel in Plainclothes, Angelo has continued on his path of healing, including spending time on the Hawaiian island of Kauai (commemorated with the album’s cover photo). “It wasn’t easy to leave home at that time, but it is such a beautiful place,” he says. I got a house close enough to where I could walk to the ocean and snorkel every day. The trip was my first big step towards living and functioning again.”
De Augustine also made his return to the stage with a concert at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Los Angeles, marking his first time performing with a full-band ensemble. De Augustine, who’s planning a run of concerts in support of Angel in Plainclothes, says “There will be a different band for each concert. Completely different musicians and different instrumentation, depending on whatever I feel like at the moment.”
In sharing Angel in Plainclothes with the world, Angelo aims to provide hope to others in times of deep despair and suffering. “One of the most helpful things that kept me going was the people in my life telling me that everything was ultimately going to be okay. I hope these songs end up having the same kind of effect on people out in the world, and help them know that miracles are possible.”