Giles Corey

Giles Corey

Giles Corey is the solo project of American musician Dan Barrett, who is also part of Black Wing, Have a Nice Life and Nahvalr. Barrett is from Glastonbury, Connecticut. The project begins as a collection of acoustic songs and develops into a body of work built around his written reflections on whether life is worth living.

Style and themes

The music moves between alt-country, gospel-influenced shoegaze and synth-heavy folk, with material that ranges from upbeat to bleak, and from sparse to expansive. The songs are presented as part of a wider attempt to organise thoughts, books and events into something that can be set aside.

Albums

The self-titled debut is structured as more of a narrative than a conventional record, combining photographs, prose and music to trace a movement from life into suicidal depression and back again. It also includes an examination of the work of Robert Voor, the author of On An Obscure Text, which accompanies the Have a Nice Life album Deathconsciousness. The album Deconstructionist follows in 2012.