The Californian musician Angelo De Augustine has today shared the next single to be taken from his upcoming album Toil and Trouble (30 June, Asthmatic Kitty). Following on from ‘Another Universe’ which was featured in our Tracks of the Week #226, this song is called ‘The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill’ and you can watch the video here:
The song is based on the Betty and Barney Hill incident, a famous UFO sighting and alien encounter involving a couple in New Hampshire in 1961 and Angelo De Augustine’s use of it is to try to understand and navigate his own experiences.
As he explains further: “While making the album I endured an experience so horrendous, torturous, and inexplicable that words fail me and explanation seems impossible. Within this period, I felt a close connection to Betty and Barney Hill and their story. I even started to believe that perhaps I had been abducted by some kind intergalactic being as they claimed occurred to them fifty-four years ago. When we experience something that doesn’t make logical sense, the mind looks to conjure any explanation no matter how outlandish it appears. We appear to crave understanding. Perhaps it makes us feel safe. The looming presence of the unknown is daunting and sometimes frightening. However, there is much we do not yet understand, some of which we will never comprehend.”