Giles Corey

thumb|right|The execution of Giles Corey, a 17th-century farmer from whom the project derives its name Giles Corey was the first main solo project of Barrett. It began as an outlet for country music but was progressively and supplementarily inspired by folk music. Barrett said the music was influenced by country singer-songwriters Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard, among others. The project took its name from Giles Corey, an English farmer accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials and executed by pressing. Barrett chose this as the namesake because it demonstrated the "immorality of execution", especially . Barrett says of Corey: "He made them murder him. He made it ugly". This fixation on death followed a one-year period wherein Barrett was contemplating, and had attempted, suicide. During the early stages of the Giles Corey project, he placed self-imposed restrictions on which instruments would be featured. However, as the debut album, the self-titled Giles Corey (2011), evolved, these constraints faded. The album draws on philosophy and the paranormal, something Barrett explored to theorise the experience of death during his depressive year. While unconvinced by the idea of an afterlife, he appreciates its symbolism: speaking to Scene Point Blank, Barrett said "I don't believe in an actual afterlife, but I believe that the image and symbolism of the afterlife describes death in a way that speaks to people, myself included". Despite the album focusing on the concept of death, he argues against it being a concept album: "I don't really like the term 'concept album,' since it just sounds corny". Giles Corey was released on 1 March 2011 to critical acclaim. According to Ray Finlayson of Beats Per Minute, "no words or descriptions will really, properly, fully prepare you for the sheer heart-wrenching emotional pull that these tracks have". The album was released alongside a book which provided more details on the album's influences, as well as various other items of prose: Stereogum described it as "an etiology of suicide, self-asphyxiation manual, novel-in-verse, fictional biography of a cult leader, Sebaldian picture story, et al". Barrett himself advertised it as an "intensely personal, intimate portrait of depression". The book was in part a sequel to the one that accompanied Have a Nice Life's Deathconsciousness. In continuation of the Giles Corey project, Barrett released Deconstructionist on 25 August 2012. The release comprised three tracks that in total, spanned over an hour and a half of runtime. On official sources, Deconstructionist is regarded as an album, while Wired writer Phill Cameron called it an extended play (EP). Barrett was inspired by "traditional ritual trance" while making Deconstructionalist, and as such, described the release as being "designed to induce trances, possession states, and out-of-body experiences". Musically, the release is composed of binaural beats. Cameron described it as a "disconcerting racket" that feels "almost lonely; every sound echoes, as if in a huge space, and the constant pressure of electronic beats adds a sense of desperate urgency to the music. It's unsettling and uncomfortable." Like his previous releases, Deconstructionalist was also accompanied by a primer. Since these albums, Barrett has released one EP and one live album under the Giles Corey pseudonym. The EP, titled Hinterkaifeck, was released on 21 February 2013, and the live album, Live in the Middle of Nowhere, was released on 27 February 2013. The live album was recorded at a live show in the Enemies List Home Recordings warehouse in Meriden, Connecticut. Giles Corey was scheduled to perform at the 2021 Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands, but the event was cancelled due to the local lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ultimately, Giles Corey would not perform until Roadburn 2023.

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