A well-known Irish folk artist is bringing his new side project to Vancouver Island along with local Nanaimo artist Ora Cogan and Vancouver’s The Nausea.
One Leg One Eye is the new project of George Brennan and Ian Lynch, who is a founding member of Irish group Lankum.
Together, they explore unique sounds and the intersections of traditional folk, black metal, noise and drone.
Nanaimo’s own Ora Cogan is a Victoria expat, who has made quite a name for herself not only on Vancouver Island, but throughout Canada and internationally as well. In fact, it was while Cogan was touring in Ireland that she first crossed paths with Lynch and his band Lankum.
“I was a fan first, I really loved his podcast ‘Fire Draw Nearer,’ it’s great,” Cogan told Victoria Buzz.
“Lankum rips, I wouldn’t do them justice to describe, and now they’ve become friends.”
She added that this tour of One Leg One Eye began as a potential Lankum tour, or just a few shows, but that grew into a tour, featuring herself and The Nausea.
Cogan’s music blends traditional folk music with experimental and psychedelic sounds to create a truly unique identity as an artist.
Typically, Cogan will tour solo or with a backing band, but for the run of shows she is supporting One Leg One Eye, she is excited to be collaborating with Vancouver artist, The Nausea.
The Nausea is the project of Anju Singh, who Cogan says is one of her favourite sound and noise artists, who is multi-disciplinary and her resume shows it.
“She has The Nausea, she does film scoring, she composes for opera and orchestral music, she plays in about five million metal bands as a drummer… She’s one of the hardest working people I know,” said Cogan.
“We’ve known each other for around 20 years and we’ve always meant to do something together and talked about it often, but it took a really long time to come to fruition.”
Cogan says that after two decades, she is really excited to try experimenting with sound alongside The Nausea for these shows.
“It’ll be more improvised and experimental. Just a totally different kind of set and different approach to music,” explained Cogan.
“The Nausea is more orchestral noise, or chamber noise, so it’s going to be quite different from what I normally do.”
Cogan met with One Leg One Eye in Edmonton and together, they will be making their way westward from and The Nausea will be joining the tour in Vancouver.
On Vancouver Island, they will all be playing in Victoria, Cumberland and Nanaimo.
However, the Victoria show on Thursday, October 9th, just sold out. It is slated to take place at an unconventional space, at Cinderbloc Studios on Esquimalt Road, which is typically just used as a photography studio space.
Those who couldn’t get a ticket for that show but want to make the trip up-island to see One Leg One Eye, The Nausea and Ora Cogan in Cumberland and Nanaimo can still get tickets to those shows.
In Cumberland, they are playing at the Masonic Lodge on Friday, October 10th. Tickets are available online here.
The Nanaimo show is taking place at The Vault on Saturday October 11th, and tickets are available for that show online, here.
These shows will be unique and special! Check them out if you can!
