Lewis & Clarke Announces Single Release: 
“Aurora 15:34 (Wicca Phase Springs Eternal - Remix) 
via La Société Expéditionnaire 24 February, 2023

Renowned emo rapper and Goth Boi Clique founder Wicca Phase Springs Eternal remixes Indie Folk veteran Lewis & Clarke (nom-de-plume of Lou Rogai). The dark, synth-infused, ambient trap-folk remix version delivers a slow-burning ambiance. His soundscape sears the lyrical images into the psyche and reflects the story with slow-burning and deliberate patience.

An unlikely collaboration? Not necessarily; their history originates in the coal-blackened wasteland of Scranton, PA,  first meeting at DIY shows some 18 years ago. In 2021, Wicca Phase dropped the name of L&C's 2007 LP Blasts of Holy Birth while guesting on Pictureplane's "Black Chardonnay". He sang: "Absorbing the Blasts of Holy Birth I explode". Rogai's son Julian, a jazz musician and producer, heard this and encouraged the collaboration.

This song is a tribute and in memory of Elijah McClain, a black American who was murdered at the hands of Aurora Colorado authorities. Bodycam footage of the incident at 15:34 is of particular note.

The remix will release on Feb 24, 2022, the eve of what would have been McClain's 27th Birthday. The original version was released on the 3rd anniversary of Elijah McClain's murder, Aug. 30, 2022. It was featured as Song of the Day on Folk Radio UK:
www.folkradio.co.uk/2022/08/lewis-and-clarke-aurora-elijah-mcclain/

About Lewis & Clarke

Lou Rogai is a songwriter and composer. His voice and vision resonate throughout Lewis & Clarke's signature sound of lush, long-form art-folk compositions. The moniker references the fellowship and correspondence between C.S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke. His work has been lauded by major music publications, indie radio, and broadcast programming including heavy rotation on NPR's All Things Considered for over a decade. He has released albums on his own imprint in a fiercely independent manner and performed throughout North America and Europe. He has steadily and quietly established a body of work and garnered a following while exploring his musical path, connecting with the human condition through themes of birth, growth, aspiration, conflict, and mortality. 

Praise for Lewis & Clarke
"Eight tracks of delicate beauty.” - Pitchfork

"Rogai has a gift for speaking plainly while tonguing poetry, and his meditations on life cycles and pastoral philosophy blossom and collapse with organic grace.”  - The A/V Club

“Hypnotic mountain folk, setting reedy vocals against spare and elegant guitars, gradually swooning into a near seven-minute piece full of strings and woodsy imagery...songs for getting lost into" -Stereogum

“Lewis & Clarke has carved out its own niche thanks to the lush arrangements of its debut"- Billboard

"Exquisitely crafted, orchestrated and performed. The album is lush, warm, melancholic, world-weary, yet often uplifting. Call it chamber folk, baroque pop, or sweater weather music, the double album is a beauty." -WXPN

AURORA 15:34 

We saw him yesterday
Elijah was on his way
Glowing and whippet-thin
Floating above the fray
Beating his heart is free
Sight and simplicity
Dancing and violins
Bright eccentricity
Quiet and healing soul
A gentleman we are told
Promise in every fold
Extending a hand to hold
He was kind

Innocent and subdued
Motive is misconstrued
Pleading with gratitude
Celestial latitude
In a kinetic tide
Particles energized
Speeding into the night
Atoms as we collide

Falling in front of our eyes
Justice is silent and going blind
So many innocent lives
Taken with violence and by design

This is our time
Now we arrive
The answer is opening

In the Aurora night
Calling out for his life
They took it just the same
Lest we forget his name
For Elijah