PROJECT NOWHERE 2026: ORA COGAN + SHIRLEY HURT + WILLOW SWITCH

PROJECT NOWHERE IV: A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MUSIC EXPERIENCE
Project Nowhere presents:
ORA COGAN (Nanaimo, BC)
SHIRLEY HURT (Toronto)
WILLOW SWITCH (London, ON)
Fri Oct 2 @ The Garrison
Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/e687b6d92abc
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Ora Cogan
https://oracogan.bandcamp.com/music
Ora Cogan’s music is alchemical: part instinct, part ritual, and always conjured from the edges where life feels sharpest. With Hard Hearted Woman, she mixes haunted folk, psych rock, and a shadowy strain of country, building a realm where catharsis feels lush, mysterious and vital. Shaken by the tenor of modern life, Cogan pulled in a circle of kindred musicians and made a
record shaped by someone who has looked into the abyss and decided, again and again, to choose curiosity.
Hard Hearted Woman grew out of a blur of cold-water plunges, long river swims, late-night ruminations with friends on art and politics, and long drives through the rural Lillooet landscape to visit her godmother. Alongside her band and guests from both the country and experimental worlds, she recorded with David Parry (Loving) at Dream Club in Victoria, B.C., as well as in her studio in Nanaimo, and remotely with Tom Deis. The result glows like something pulled from smoke and seawater — intimate, shimmering, and carved with wit as much as grief. It’s a swirling, jewel-toned ode to all the angels and the demons.
A work of devotion to mystery, to community, and to the strange power of making art in a fractured world, Hard Hearted Woman is a record about hardness and resilience; it’s the shell we grow so our most human, breakable selves can survive. Hard Hearted Woman is for anyone trying to stay open, even when the world makes that feel impossible
Shirley Hurt
https://shirleyhurt.bandcamp.com/
Temple, Bassey, MacLaine and now, Hurt; in a world of Shirleys, the name Sophia Ruby Katz has chosen for her music is perhaps prophetic as it captures her stunningly emotive vocal approach. And whilst Shirley Hurt might be the perfect nom de plume for the creative Toronto-based artist, it’s her self-titled debut album which positions her as protagonist of her own universe.
Traversing sonic landscapes, Shirley Hurt’s vocals ebb and flow like lyrical Ley lines tracking the contours of her own well-travelled map. By the age of 18, Hurt had travelled extensively, having lived in upwards of 20 different apartments and houses, as a result never really feeling “at home” anywhere. At this age was when Hurt found herself in New York, dipping her toes into various scenes and musical realms. The first and only place she ever felt at home, and a partial home-base for her, she travelled between Toronto and New York until the age of 26.When the project she was working on in New York reached a dead-end she returned West, moving in with musicians Harrison Forman (Hieronymus Harry, Zones) and Patrick Lefler (Roy, Possum). Being surrounded by their improvising at all hours, a new approach emerged. “Harrison is a virtuosic guitar player, and I hadn't picked up a guitar in any serious way since I was 16,” she says, “by osmosis I started playing again for fun.” Without agenda, the process grew organically from there.
Carving out a space of her own in an all-encompassing universe, Shirley Hurt is the introduction to a long artistic story, and if the journey so far is anything to go by, it will be stippled with evermore unpredictable chapters.
Willow Switch
https://willowswitch.bandcamp.com/
Willow Switch is a dark folk music duo that embodies the crossroads of tradition and subversion. The band consists of saw-player and guitarist Andra Zlatescu and banjo player Robin Henry. Together they call upon the spirits of the land to create ambient haunting harmonies and sing open the doorways to other realms.
Their music is a journey through of dark spiritual dirges that evoke a sense of foreboding, much like a cold fog billowing down a mountain. Willow Switch's melodies are equally eerie and captivating, luring listeners into the dark, uninhabited corners of the woodlands. Their sound has been called “doom-folk”, “heavy meadow”, “folk noir”, “the crossroads between Appalachian and Black Sabbath”. If you venture fearlessly into the secret heart of the forest you can find out for yourself.
At the core of Willow Switch's music lies a deep reverence for folkloric stories. They spin tales of civilization lost and reclaimed by nature, exploring themes of grief for old almost-forgotten pathways, and weaving those threads of memory into dreaming up new futures. Through their music, Willow Switch seeks to carve out a new path in the folk music landscape, reviving the traditions of the past and breathing new life into them.

This event is 19+
About Project Nowhere:
Project Nowhere returns to Toronto’s west end on 𝐎𝐂𝐓 𝟏-𝟑, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, promising the best of underground heavy hitters and exciting up-and-comers from Toronto and beyond.⁠
3-Day passes are available now: https://link.dice.fm/k219b88d4175
IG: @projectnowherefest
https://www.projectnowhere.org/

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Project Nowhere would like to thank its partners & funders:
Canada Heritage
Ontario Creates
Toronto Arts Council
City of Toronto
Exclaim! Magazine
Also Cool Mag
RANGE Magazine
Woodhouse Brewing / JCBC
Collective Arts
Adamson Systems Engineering
Sideshow

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.