New single / video “Skull” out now
On the Video for Sleeping:
Sourced from Natasha Lavdovsky's experimental performance series titled, “Primordial Safety Test”, the footage in Ora Cogan’s newest music video (shot in 2019 on the shores of Haida Gwaii) contrasts our struggle for safety with the peacefulness of surrender. Lavdovsky utilizes the trope of the post-apocalyptic figure alone in the landscape to highlight the precariousness of human life on earth in the face of environmental destruction, climate change, and sea level rise. On a carefully chosen day (according to the moon phase and tidal flux), with the help of one assistant working the camera, Lavdovsky stood in the ocean for 90 minutes, allowing the tide to rise over her body. After this, she spent the rest of the day alone, filming herself floating and struggling to climb onto a rock. Beyond themes of apocalypse and survival, this video is about the strong human desire to be reunited with nature, and the peace one can find when we stop fighting for control, and just be in the moment. Floating on the edge of the ocean’s vast silence is both alien and familiar. Being held in the ocean’s soft embrace is like returning to our primordial home, and reminds us that we are always somewhere between birth, and death.
The video was shot with respect and reverence, in the K̲andaliig̲wii, on unceded Haida territory. Editing was gratefully completed on unceded Tsawout territory, by the Salish Sea.
BELLS IN THE RUINS
Track list
Sleeping
Skull
Tell
Kills
The Devil
Fixe
Secret
Alta
Crime
All songs written by Ora Cogan except for
Skull: Lyrics by Serena Shipp & Ora Cogan, Music by Reggie Bast & Ora Cogan
All songs produced by David Parry & Ora Cogan
All songs recorded at Dobro Genius by David Parry except for
vocals on Tell, Secret, Fixe & Skull recorded by Logan Gabert at Craig’s Place
Sleeping credits
Vocals & Electric guitar - Ora Cogan
Drums - Keenan Mittag-Degala
Bass guitar & Slide Guitar - David Parry
Synths - Reggie Bast
Album art by Natasha Lavdovsky