Surrey singer-songwriter CocoLarosa on the rise with debut album<\/p>\n
Published 10:15 am Monday, June 8, 2026<\/p>\n
CocoLarosa is a songwriter who deserves to be heard by a wider audience.<\/p>\n
Saturday in Langley (June 13), the Surrey-based artist promises an intimate night of music celebrating the release of The Valley of Tongues, a debut album he titled as a nod to his family\u2019s ancestral homestead in Norway.<\/p>\n
Acoustic guitar in hand, CocoLarosa tells stories that echo the greats of the singer-songwriter genre \u2014 Dylan, Waits, Springsteen, take your pick.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of his songs play like mini operas with mythical characters and dubious motives, while others are rapid-paced political tirades of epic proportion,\u201d declares Russ Rosen, artistic director of Bez Arts Hub, where CocoLarosa performs on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
CocoLarosa (aka Harley Tangedal, still using a gamer name) writes lyrically rich folk songs when not working as a marine mechanic for his family business at Annieville Slough. Though he\u2019s been writing since his childhood, he began sharing his songs publicly just a few years ago, and was a highlight of last February\u2019s Music City Showcase<\/a> at Surrey Arts Centre.<\/p>\n The new album \u201chas had many faces, and has been worked on in many places in the last year,\u201d CocoLarosa shared on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBringing this record to life came with its fair share of challenges. There were a ton of obstacles, both personal and professional, but there was also a lot of growth. And now after every setback, late night, and growing pain, we\u2019ve finally almost finished what we started over a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Appropriately, cover art for The Valley of Tongues was created with coloured pencil by Daniel Tibbits, another artist with Surrey roots.<\/p>\n \u201cNowadays it\u2019s all too easy to crank out something with AI that\u2019s been trained on the labour of real artists, but that seems like a sad way to go when you could be supporting the people in your community who have dedicated years to developing their skills,\u201d CocoLarosa underlines.<\/p>\n