Aurora 15:34 is the new single from Lewis & Clarke, which also marks something of a departure. Lewis and Clarke is the vehicle for Lou Rogai‘s long-form art-folk compositions, through which he probes the human condition through themes of birth, growth, aspiration, conflict, and mortality. As he told me recently when talking about the shift with this song, “I feel more like an abstract naturalist or romantic impressionist when it comes to my music and this is a first when it comes to the literal realm.”
Released today, Aurora 15:34, is a song written as a eulogy to Elijah McClain, who was murdered by police three years ago to the day. While this may be Rogai’s first in the literal realm, the one thing his music never lacks is emotional force, which comes to the fore here. The song is both touching and haunting, carved out of sorrow, anger and love – “This song is both a eulogy to him as an individual and a rallying cry against the systemic violence and racism that pervades our society.”
Aurora 15:34 is also our Song of the Day.
Lou Rogai on Aurora 15:34 and Elijah McClain:
I’m the kind of person inclined to say “this is my art, have at it”. Explaining is tedious, didactic even, and I want the music to speak for itself. But in this case, context is everything. Aurora 15:34 is both a eulogy to an individual and a rallying cry against the systemic violence and racism that pervades our society.
I wrote the music as both a reflection of (and respite to) the hyper-madness of our current cultural unrest. I am not a scholar of ethnic studies, nor an academic invested in criminal justice science. I am someone who felt something and interpreted it in order to find meaning.
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 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 reveals manipulation, abuse of power, and undue force. At 15:34, an officer tells another to “leave your camera there”.
August 30 marks the third anniversary of McClain’s death. He was removed from life support after suffering life-sustaining injuries at the hands of authorities just days prior. Five parties involved have been indicted and are awaiting arraignment. Aurora is a department rife with corruption, in a nation that has been pretending it wasn’t founded on the blood and oppression of the sugar trade.
Is this justice? Nothing will ever bring a son back to his mother, a friend back to his community. This story is all too common in America. Discussions like these are finally coming to the forefront. The momentum is now, the conversation is here. I’ve chosen to speak through my medium and I can only hope to contribute to change and calibration, both internally and externally.
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.
Lyrics
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
Aurora is Out Now
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