Ora Cogan’s music is alchemical: part instinct, part ritual, and always conjured from the edges where life feels sharpest. Today, the Vancouver-based artist announces her new album and Sacred Bones Records debut, Hard Hearted Woman, arriving March 13th. Following 2023’s Formless (reviewed here), Cogan’s latest work is a jewel-toned ode to resilience, mixing haunted folk, psych-rock, and a shadowy strain of country into a realm where catharsis feels both lush and vital.
The album opens with the lead single “Honey,” a slow-blooming burn built on warm strings and loose, driving percussion. Cogan’s voice is steady and smoky, addressing the “hard hearted woman” who anchors the record. It is a track that radiates strength without sacrificing tenderness, featuring the evocative lyric: “Just a hard-hearted woman // Gunmetal smile // Guarding your heart // Guarding your style.” The accompanying video, directed by Paloma Ruiz-Hernandez, depicts Cogan bewitching a whirlwind of friends and strangers into a dance of chaotic joy, exploring the intersection of isolation and collective longing.
Raised in a bohemian home on an island in the Salish Sea, Cogan’s path has been anything but linear. From apprenticing as a silversmith at fifteen to her time in Vancouver’s noise scene and years dedicated to environmental justice, her music is shaped by a life of curiosity. Recorded with David Parry (Loving) and a band featuring members like Kristopher Bowering (Orville Peck), Hard Hearted Woman grew out of a blur of cold-water plunges and long drives through rural British Columbia.
To support the release, Cogan will embark on a spring tour through Canada, the UK, and Ireland, beginning with an album release show at The Pearl in Vancouver on March 13th. Hard Hearted Woman is a work of devotion to the strange power of making art in a fractured world—a shell grown so our most breakable selves can survive.
Pre-order Hard Hearted Woman: https://oracogan.lnk.to/Hardheartedwoman
Tour dates:
March 13 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl (Album Release Show)
March 19 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin
March 20 – Oxford, UK @ The Nest
March 21 – Manchester, UK @ Yes Pink Room
March 22 – Newcastle, UK @ The Lubber Fiend
March 24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s
March 25 – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2
March 27 – Galway, IE @ Roisin Dubh
March 28 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
March 29 – Cork, IE @ Wavelength at Cyprus Avenue
April 1 – Sheffield, UK @ Sidney & Matilda
April 2 – Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade
April 3 – London, UK @ Dingwalls