The organizational chart of Later Fortune is a Russian nested dolls of assumed identity: one part Chet Delcampo, one part Heyward Howkins. Chet Delcampo is the name under which Philadelphian Chris Madl writes, records, releases, and occasionally performs his minimalist but richly idiosyncratic brand of whispery indie-pop arcana whenever he’s not moonlighting as a mobile X-ray technician. Originally, he just called the project 'Chet' -- named after Steve Buscemi's cadaverous bellhop in the Coen Brothers' 1991 masterpiece, Barton Fink. Later, thinking the name needed a few more syllables, he added the Delcampo, which he appropriated from Rocco Delcampo, a friend of Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet-diplomat-politician. Just to complicate matters further, Chet Delcampo sometimes records under the name Hong Kong Stingray. His discography includes two proper Chet Delcampo albums (The Fountain and Apartment Songs), and and three singles (“The Ballad Of Mr. Chen,” “Indonesia” and “Leading Her To Believe”/”Driving Around The City”) plus two Hong Kong Stingray albums (LP and Film/Instrumental ) and an EP (A Little Broken Isn’t Bad). Confused? Good, shows you’re paying attention.

Heyward Howkins is the nom de rock of Mr. John Heyward Howkins, a recovering geologist/e-book editor come indie-rock savant raised on the not-so-mean streets of Philadelphia’s Main Line who traffics in an oblique, asymmetrical subspecies of chamber pop and sings like a French horn. Think John Ashbery with a guitar. Heyward Howkins has to date released two albums of spare, gilded melancholia, 2012’s Hale & Hearty -- with Madl engineering, producing, co-arranging and laying down various instrumental tracks -- and 2013‘s Be Frank, Furness, co-produced by Ben Riesman (Le Fits, Bart Davenport) and mixed by Quentin Stoltzfus (Mazarin/Light Heat, The Walkmen, Lilys, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah). For 2015’s “Forecasting/Midway Double” 7-inch, Howkins once again enlisted Madl to engineer, produce and mix.

Later Fortune started out as what Madl intended to be a series of spontaneous collaborations written and recorded on the spot with a revolving cast of collaborators. The idea was to write and record a new song every month and then at the end of the year there would an album’s worth of material to release. But, as the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Back in the summer of 2017, Madl invited Howkins over to his newly upgraded recording studio write and record the inaugural song of this then-unnamed project. They tracked the skeleton of what would become “12 Yr. Audition” with Howkins vocals and acoustic guitar and Madl on electric guitar. Madl then fleshed out the track with thrumming bass, vintage drum machine clickety-clack, sad-eyed piano accents and moody swells of murmuring synth. Erik Schmidt was brought in to play organic drums, Imani Roach laid down backing vocals and Howkins added baritone slide guitar on the outro. The result is a lovely slice of hushed pop reverie about getting old waiting to begin the begin.

For the gorgeously elegiac b-side instrumental “Birds Of Papua,” Madl sketched out a melody with tangerine dreamy synth washes and plaintively plucked electric guitar and then kicked it over to Howkins who laid down a gently chiming guitar track. Erik Schmidt was brought in again to play drums, along with Sean Hur on Hammond organ and Vince Tampio’s muted, mournful horn. Depending on what you’re on, the resulting track either sounds like peak Lambchop or the sad song that runs through Charlie Brown’s head every time he tries to laugh off Lucy pulling the football away at the very last minute. As for the cryptic name of the project, Madl says, with trademark inscrutability, that Later Fortune “hints to some kinda equanimity and more lucid self awareness that comes with the accruing years.” Howkins, ever the sweet-natured fatalist, points out that it “also suggests that the fortune could be leaving.” As in ‘see you later, alligator.’ To which you respond with the magic words: After a while, crocodile. And then we all fold our arms and smile knowingly, nodding our heads ever so slightly, like none of this ever happened.