Aurora 15:34 (Wicca Phase Springs Eternal - Remix)
Friday February 24, 2023
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GothBoiClique founder Wicca Phase Springs Eternal remixes Lewis & Clarke's elegy to Elijah McClain,
a black American murdered at the hands of Aurora Colorado authorities.
Wicca Phase recasts Lewis & Clarke's slow-burning chamber-folk into uncharted territory. Stripping away orchestral elements, he conjures an atmosphere both deliberate and meditative. The dirge resonates on dark open waves of synth, propelled by syncopated percussion. His mix underscores floating vocals, swept forward through dream-like layers of heavily processed Tibetan throat singing.
An unbearable lightness of being permeates not only the track, but the through-lines of both artists. While each embraces his own respective brand of introspection and melancholia, Aurora 15:34 is an outward-facing call for change. The remix will release on Feb. 24, the eve of what would have been Elijah McClain's 27th Birthday. The original version was released on Aug. 30, described in detail on Folk Radio UK.
Lou Rogai (Lewis & Clarke) and Adam McIlwee (Wicca Phase Springs Eternal) first crossed paths some 18 years ago in the eclectic and fertile DIY community of Scranton, PA. They corresponded early on via US mail, sharing music and typewritten letters. Years later Wicca Phase would reference
Lewis & Clarke's second album on Pictureplane's Black Chardonnay with the prophetic line: "Absorbing the Blasts of Holy Birth I explode".
Explode he has, indeed.
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.
About Wicca Phase Springs Eternal
Wicca Phase Springs Eternal is the creative persona of Scranton, PA singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Adam McIlwee. Stark transmissions of obsession, melancholia, and raw emotion complement acoustic guitar and digital percussion as if Peter Murphy and Metro Boomin had been playing Ouija together. Beneath the deep 808’s, moody synthesizers and cackling guitar, McIlwee’s singular voice effectively resonates with a generation raised amidst the frenzied collage of modern digital expression.
Lewis & Clarke Past Press:
"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