Angelo De Augustine returns with ‘Mirror Mirror’ ahead of Angel in Plainclothes
Angelo De Augustine releases ‘Mirror Mirror’ and announces his fifth album Angel in Plainclothes, out April 24th via Asthmatic Kitty. The Southern California-based singer-songwriter shares the track as the first release from his forthcoming LP.
‘Mirror Mirror’ unfolds as a hypnotic composition built from train whistles, electric guitars, off-kilter, blown-out drums, and a zither-like bowed psaltery. The production layers experimental textures with De Augustine’s intimate vocal approach, including the lyric “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.” The single reflects a shift in creative process, shaped by experimentation and unconventional structure.
De Augustine says of the track:
“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.”
Angel in Plainclothes follows De Augustine’s 2019 LP Tomb and his 2021 collaborative album with Sufjan Stevens, A Beginner’s Mind. The new album arrives after De Augustine collapsed and was hospitalized with an undiagnosed illness in early 2022, an experience that reshaped his creative and personal outlook.
‘Mirror Mirror’ is out now and available to stream on all major platforms.
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