“Gorgeously crafted and composed, full of wonder…sheer beauty and trauma” -The Line Of Best Fit
DELAWARE WATER GAP, Penn. (August 15, 2022) – Lewis & Clarke releases his first art folk single “Aurora 15:34,” in eight years on August 30. This song is both a eulogy and a rallying cry against the systemic violence and racism that pervades our society. Tension and sparseness underlay the composition as the song climaxes in a flurry of woodwinds and strings mimicking that of social, spiritual, and civil unrest before subsiding into the steady heartbeat of an 808 kick drum.
Elijah McClain was a 23-year-old black American who died after a violent police encounter. He was a massage therapist who loved animals and often played violin for stray cats at Petco. Elijah was listening to music and dancing when he was detained on his way home from picking up an iced tea for his brother in Aurora, Colorado. Bodycam footage at the 15:34 mark reveals an officer saying, “Leave your camera there”.
The song is included on the upcoming Lewis & Clarke LP and contains orchestral elements of Lou Rogai’s recent Cathedral LP (2018). It is his first Lewis & Clarke release since 2014’s Triumvirate. In the interim, he has been producing, scoring, composing, and raising his family, including 17-year-old Julian Rogai, who performs double bass on this track.
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
