Oliver Cole new album releasing through Bohemia Label Services

Kells' native, Oliver Cole, releases his fourth solo studio album, Wingspan, on October 3rd 2025.

Following the acclaim he received for his 2020 album "Father, Brother, Son", which was named RTE Album of the Week, Newstalk Album of the Week, and Irish Times Album of the Week, Cole delivers another immersive musical journey. He describes "Wingspan" as less direct than his other albums, more of a stream of consciousness approach.

"The songs are more like faded photographs, vignettes viewed through foggy windows. There is meaning and truth there but it must be deciphered and interpreted by the listener."

The songs for Wingspan were recorded in Oliver's back garden studio, The Cole Shed, which he built during the Covid pandemic. With the help of long-term friends and collaborators Gav Fox (Turn, Idlewild, Sack), Graham Hopkins (The Frames, Glen Hansard, Therapy, Dolores O'Riordan), Jason Oglesby, and Leila Keeney. Oliver recorded and self-produced the album. 

Oliver describes the recording process as long and challenging, with numerous crises of confidence moments leading to long breaks and abandoned songs. Ultimately, it was Oliver's long-time friend and mixing engineer, Ciaran Bradshaw, who stepped in and helped complete the album.

BIOGRAPHY 

Having had some success with his first band Swampshack, Oliver Cole formed the three-piece rock band, Turn. Oliver was Turn's singer, songwriter and main guitarist, and they soon signed to Infectious Records in London, which was home to Muse, Ash and Garbage, among others. Turn enjoyed great success and popularity, playing sell-out gigs at Vicar Street and a packed to the gills standout performance at the Oxegen festival in 2005.

They released three Irish Top 10 albums, 'Antisocial' (2000), 'Forward' (2003), and 'Turn' (2005) and were nominated for Ireland's coveted Choice Music Award. Cole left the band in 2006 to begin work on his first solo album, 'We Albatri', which was recorded in Germany. Upon its release in 2010, The Irish Times gave the album 5 out of 5 and made it their album of the month. Oliver continued to progress his career as both a songwriter and solo artist, on 'Year of The Bird' which was released to huge critical acclaim in 2015.

'Father Brother, Son', Cole's third album, was released in 2020. Unearthing themes of life and loss, birth and death, it explored the path from grief to recovery, following the passing of his mother and brother, in what we have and what we leave behind. Oliver is a well-respected songwriter and continues to collaborate and tour with some of Ireland's biggest names such as Glen Hansard and Gemma Hayes to name a few.

A Lazarus Soul sign to Bohemia Records; Announce fifth album

Bohemia Records are proud to reveal latest signing A Lazarus Soul.

Brian Brannigan was nicknamed Lazarus by his mother. She was told he wouldn’t survive at birth and when he did, he was diagnosed with a form of Spina Bifida. He pulled through major surgery early in life, only to be diagnosed with cancer in his teens. A mixture of good fortune and surgery saved him again. However, this trauma had a huge effect on a young mind and songwriting became his coping mechanism, his way of figuring out the world. His songs became those of A Lazarus Soul and Brannigan has gone on to build a reputation as one of Ireland’s finest lyrical commentators.

The band’s first three albums, ALSRecord (2001), Graveyard of Burnt Out Cars (2007), Through a Window in the Sunshine Room had revolving cast of musicians from other Irish bands including Ten Speed Racer, Mexican Pets, Future Kings of Spain, Sunbear and Rollerskate Skinny. However, they all heavily featured the music of and were produced / arranged by one of Ireland's finest producers and musicians, Joe Chester. 

After becoming a father, Brannigan all but quit playing live until he was asked (at a 2 year old’s birthday party) to play a tribute gig to his hero, Mark E. Smith. He asked Joe, Julie Bienvenu (Lines Drawing Circles) and Anton Hegarty (Future Kings of Spain) to accompany him. With only an hour’s rehearsal, something very special happened in Stoneybatter that night, the line-up of ALS solidified.

Together they released Last of the Analogue Age (2014). It was made album of the week by John Meagher (Newstalk), Alan Jacques (Limerick Live 95) & Dan Hegarty (2FM). It was included in many year end top ten lists including the Irish Independent and Newstalk. It was album of the year for Tom Dunne (Newstalk), Alan Jacques (Limerick 95) & Paul Page (Between The Bars blog / Whipping Boy).

The same year, ALS was invited to play live on RTE Radio 1’s Arena, Other Voices Music Trial and Newstalk’s Pet Sounds end of year broadcast. They were also invited to play the Abbey Theatre, where they stunned a packed theatre with a rendition of The Midday Class. 

They were included in Tom Dunne’s Sunday Times 100 Irish albums to Love in 2017. 

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS RELEASES…

"The Green and Live album of the year for 2014 is nothing short of a masterpiece. It's our album of the year by a country mile.“ - Alan Jacques, Limerick Live 95fm

"Album of the week" - John Meagher, Newstalk 106

"A career best that firmly cements Brian Brannigan as one of Ireland's most criminally unsung lyrical heroes" - John Walshe, Hot Press 8/10

"So impressed, it has that brooding energy that Whipping Boy achieved on Heartworm" - Dan Hegarty, 2FM

"One listen & I already know it is everything that most modern music is not" - Paul Page, Entertainment.ie

NEW ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT

May 2019 sees the release of the band’s fifth album, “The D They Put Between The R & L”, a record of passion, reminiscence and societal discontent.

Brian says of lead single “No Hope Road”…. “I had a great love of reggae music & Bob Marley was my introduction and probably my first musical hero. Every summer in the working class estates of the north side of Dublin (and I’m told the south side too) Marley would blare out of the “2in1’s”, our name for what was a small ghettoblaster, tape deck & radio. I was always fascinated by Marley and would be glued to any documentary on T.V. My brother had a copy of “Legend”and a rather exotic import, the live “Babylon By Bus” which he got from my auntie in London. This song is my attempt to articulate why Dublin people had such a soft spot for Bob. Like any great artist, you don’t get a proper sense of them from a collection of singles. It wasn’t until my teens when I got to hear “Catch A Fire” or “Talkin’ Blues”, that I really knew what Marley was about and my obsession grew.“

JOE CHESTER SIGNS TO BOHEMIA RECORDS FOR NEW ALBUM

Joe Chester - Photo by Julie Bienvenu

Bohemia Records are delighted to announce the signing of critically acclaimed, multi-talented musician and producer, Joe Chester.

We will be working closely with Joe on the release of his forthcoming fifth studio album, The Easter Vigil, early in 2017 and also representing Joe's captivating back catalogue for distribution and sync licensing. Joe has been nominated for a Choice Award and a Meteor Award and his debut album, A Murder of Crows, has been included in 101 Irish Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Tony Clayton-Lea and Dan Hegarty's recently published Buried Treasure: Volume 2.

Joe also has an impressive history of credits in his role as one of Ireland's most in demand producers having worked with Gemma Hayes, Hozier, Mundy, The Coronas, Ryan Sheridan,
Shane McGowan, Camille O'Sullivan, The Hedge Schools.

http://www.joechester.com/