This beau­ti­ful new album, Angel in Plain­clothes has been a long time in the mak­ing for its cre­ator, Ange­lo De Augus­tine. He’s a gift­ed song­writer in his own right, as well as a col­lab­o­ra­tor of Suf­jan Stevens and the album is released via Suf­jan Stevens’ Asth­mat­ic Kit­ty label. This record marks a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for Ange­lo as it arrives in the wake of an incred­i­bly dif­fi­cult chap­ter in his life; in 2022 he col­lapsed and was hos­pi­talised with an ill­ness that doc­tors were unable to diag­nose. Since then, he has had to relearn the very fun­da­men­tals of liv­ing – walk­ing, talk­ing, see­ing, hear­ing, play­ing music, and singing.

Angel in Plain­clothes is, in many ways, a cel­e­bra­tion, a way of affirm­ing his return to life itself but it does­n’t shy away from the hor­rors of sur­viv­ing a debil­i­tat­ing ill­ness. Writ­ten, record­ed, arranged, pro­duced, and mixed by Ange­lo in his home stu­dio, the album feels deeply per­son­al, a reflec­tion on fragili­ty, per­se­ver­ance, and being offered a sec­ond chance. After fac­ing the very real pos­si­bil­i­ty that he might not sur­vive his ill­ness, let alone make music again, Ange­lo returns in a rad­i­cal­ly trans­formed men­tal and emo­tion­al space with an appre­ci­a­tion for life’s sim­ple things. As he sings on Spir­it of the Unknown: “All my life’s a dis­tant mem­o­ry, apples on the trees, the sun over the sea, anoth­er melody.”

The album is not just emo­tion­al­ly pow­er­ful, it is also quite unique in its use of antique musi­cal instru­ments – a pas­sion of Angelo’s – that are used through­out and imbue the tracks with an uplift­ing warmth and gen­tle­ness. These instru­ments bring an unusu­al and inven­tive ele­ment, the Marx­o­phone, a bowed Aquar­i­on and a bowed Psaltery, along­side var­i­ous train whis­tles, elec­tric gui­tars, off kil­ter blown out drums.

The album opens with the reflec­tive Emp­ty Shell as he remem­bers the thoughts that went through his head while he was ill: “Though my love there was no place to hide, We both know that you tried, Look down from above, Find the ones that you loved, And keep them safe, Keep them sound, Keep them deep in your heart”. Angelo’s mel­low, sooth­ing vocals sit at the fore­front, car­ried by a gen­tly strummed gui­tar. It’s a del­i­cate intro­duc­tion that sets the tone for what is to follow.

Pet Ceme­tery con­tin­ues in a sim­i­lar­ly hushed reg­is­ter, its whis­per­ing vocals drift­ing over a fine­ly tex­tured arrange­ment. And on Spir­it of the Unknown, the full range of Angelo’s vocals come into focus, set against a sparse backdrop.

Ange­lo had to accept that he need­ed to pri­ori­tise his health and there­fore co-opt­ed a range of acclaimed col­lab­o­ra­tors, includ­ing a string arranger, harpist, per­cus­sion­ists and back­ing vocal­ists. The Cure was co-pro­duced with singer-song­writer and Father John Misty col­lab­o­ra­tor Jonathan Wil­son, who also plays drums on the track. It is an uplift­ing, dream­like bal­lad. Approach­ing the album’s close, the penul­ti­mate track, Pic­tures On My Wall, offers a nos­tal­gic, retro-tinged sound, with soft har­monies rem­i­nis­cent of Simon and Garfunkel.

These beau­ti­ful songs trace Angelo’s jour­ney with raw clar­i­ty, lay­ing every­thing on the line as he finds his way back to both music and life.

Ange­lo De Augus­tine Angel in Plain­clothes released 24th April via Asth­mat­ic Kitty