Chicago Classical Review of Thirteen Near-Death Experiences
Read the review of Corey’s performance with the International Contemporary Ensemble at Chicago’s legendary Velvet Lounge.
A wry, quirky take on hypochondria and a theatrical retooling of Schubert’s “Winterreise”
by Lawrence A. Johnson
One can glean some idea of the riches of Chicago’s music scene with the pair of weekend events on successive evenings presented by two of the city’s most audacious new-music groups. Each offered a distinctive take on the traditional song cycle, one a theatrical retooling of the most famous work in the genre by Schubert, and the other a genre-traversing new work by a greatly gifted young singer-composer making his Chicago debut.
Saturday night brought the local premiere of Thirteen Near-Death Experiences by Corey Dargel at The Velvet Lounge on the near South Side, an event presented by ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble).
Dargel is an artist clearly attracted to the darker side of life ranging from sexual incompetents (Sexual Side-Effects) to voluntary amputation (Removable Parts).
Hypochondria is the leitmotif for Dargel’s Thirteen Near-Death Experiences. Consisting of twelve songs and a Prelude for the backing instrumental sextet, Dargel’s vocal settings play off his own divers worries about his medical conditions, (racing heart, pain in the ribs, black spots on his tongue). Yet rather than a morbidly clinical self-absorption, Dargel’s songs are wryly witty and often hilarious, crafted with a charming, angular lyricism, the deft lyrics recalling the best work of Warren Zevon and Randy Newman.
The first song, Twelve -Year-Old Scotch tells of a nurse who supposedly plied Dargel with alcohol as a baby (“I need a constant supply just to get by.”) In What Will It Be for Me,Dargel muses on how his demise will come (“Cardiac arrest or clinically depressed? . . . there’s no mystery given my family’s medical history.”)
Other songs explore the hazards of atomic halitosis (Impotent Teeth), overfriendly doctor examinations (Touch Me Where it Counts) and a realization that obsession with imaginary illnesses can be self-defeating (Sometimes a Migraine is Just a Migraine). Yet despite the pervasive darkness of the themes, Dargel’s cycle is self-effacing and gently ironic, even ending on a touching optimistic note with Someone Will Take Care of Me.
What lifts these songs from merely comic throwaways is their graceful charm, mixing a lyric delicacy with an unsettled rhythmic line that reflects the hypochondriac’s nervous tension. The musical style is a hybrid, closer to pop than classical, but Dargel’s scoring for sextet shows great skill and ingenuity as in the opening instrumental neo-Baroque Prelude.
Dargel’s natural yet flexible voice (discreetly amplified Saturday) and crystal-clear enunciation, allowed every lyric rim-shot to register. The humorous effect of the texts was enhanced by Dargel’s expressionless, deadpan delivery. The ensemble of ICE stalwarts (flutist Eric Lamb, clarinetist Joshua Rubin, keyboardist Jacob Greenberg, percussionist David T. Little, violinist David Bowlin and cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman) provided airtight backing to Dargel, allowing every displaced accent and slow fade to register precisely.
Corey Dargel is a unique, clearly gifted young artist and kudos to ICE for bringing Dargel and his quirky music to Chicago…
Interview on My Big Gay Ears
Joseph Dalton interviewed Corey for the blog My Big Gay Ears. Go HERE for the full interview.
A Brooklyn resident and Texas native, Corey Dargel is a 32 year-old composer and singer. His music has appeared on NPR and even merited a Tweet from Rachel Maddow. After catching a performance of Dargel at Here in Manhattan, Alex Ross wrote: “Gaunt in appearance and impish in spirit, he sings in a plaintive, innocent-sounding voice, his texts zigzagging between raw confession and cerebral absurdity.”
What are you working on these days?
I have a new album “Someone Will Take Care of Me” coming out in the spring, so a lot of time lately has been devoted to recording-studio work. I’m also just starting to work on an opera — or something like an opera — with the ensemble Newspeak, novelist Andrew Sean Greer, and stage director Emma Griffin. I’m not yet allowed to say what it’s based on, but religious delusion and schizophrenia play significant roles. Also, Cornelius Dufallo (aka Neil) and I are starting a project performing songs for voice and violin with digital looping. This might also include the Bliptronic 5000that my brother just gave me for Christmas.
Do you keep up with technology? What tools work for you and which ones have you found to be overrated?
I do keep up with it, especially now that I have my Bliptronic 5000. I’m on Twitter and Facebook and I design and maintain my own website. I also blogged about my last big piece, “Thirteen Near-Death Experiences,” while I was composing it. I wouldn’t necessarily single out any technology as “overrated,” but I would say that the internet favors informational knowledge over procedural knowledge and is therefore potentially threatening to critical thinking. As for music, I think many creative musicians make the mistake of using technology to generate ideas when they should be using ideas to generate technology.
Are you single or coupled?…
Go HERE for the full interview.
Interview on Culturebot
Click here to read the interview.
Rachel Maddow Tweets About Corey’s Condoleezza Rice Songs
Beloved MSNBC host Rachel Maddow posted a tweet about Corey’s art song settings of remarks by Condoleezza Rice. Go here to listen to the songs, performed by Two Sides Sounding.
“I don’t play gospel very well. I play Brahms.” -Condoleezza Rice
NPR Song of the Day: “My Voice Is in Your Head”
NPR’s Song of the Day singles out Corey Dargel’s “My Voice Is in Your Head (For Katie from Teresa)” in this article by Lara Pellegrinelli:
NPR.org, March 31, 2009 – Trips to the hospital rarely figure into the lyrics of love songs, but in “My Voice Is in Your Head,” Corey Dargel croons his way through an appendectomy over layered electronic beats. The ungainly lyrics take listeners bedside, setting an unlikely scene for romance: “And we laughed at the compression stockings / that kept my blood from clotting.” Was that a case of flirtatious giggles, or was it the pain medication talking?
“My Voice Is in Your Head” opens Other People’s Love Songs, an album that relates the real-life love stories of regular people, in this case the accident-prone Katie and Teresa. Dargel compiled the project from songs he’d been commissioned to write for weddings, anniversaries and other special occasions.
Because he draws directly on conversations with his patrons, the lyrics can be plainspoken, quirky or even awkward — just like everyday people. Dargel’s songs make the case that real intimacy can be found in our day-to-day exchanges rather than the mundane profundity of more grandiose pop songs, and “Your Voice Is in My Head” is no exception.
Read the full article, and leave a comment about it here.
Composing via Blog
I am chronicling the creation of my new piece, Thirteen Near-Death Experiences, a concert of songs about hypochondria, commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). I created this blog because I’m attracted to the idea of creating this piece “in public.” I’m interested in hearing what people think of the songs as I’m writing them and/or what people think of the research I’m doing as I’m doing it. So please visit the blog at 13neardeathexperiences.com, listen to the audio mock-ups of songs I’ve posted there, read the lyrics, look at the musical scores, and/or leave some comments for me.
Removable Parts on WNYC’s The Takeaway
On the WNYC program The Takeaway, NY Times critic Claudia La Rocco names Removable Parts one of her top picks for the 2009 Under The Radar Festival. Here’s a clip from the interview:
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La Rocco also wrote a Times review of Removable Parts in September 2007 during the show’s premiere run.
Art on Air Radio Interviews Corey
Go here to listen to a 30-minute interview with Corey Dargel by Pete McCabe for Art on Air radio.
Art International Radio (AIR) (née WPS1) is an Internet art radio station created to provide art talk programs, experimental music and other music surveys and DJ sets, historic recordings and interviews, public programs from cultural institutions and partners around the world, poetry, radio theater, audio art, and other sonic surprises.
A Christmas Song for Time Out New York
The magazine Time Out New York asked Corey to write a Christmas song for their holiday issue. He came up with the following:
Keep Repeating Those Words
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from the mag: (more…)
Removable Parts preview in the Toronto Star
Out on a Limb
by John Terauds
published in the Toronto Star, December 5, 2008
Of all the show titles to cause a double take, Removable Parts: A Series of Love Songs About Voluntary Amputation, has to be among the most provocative.
The lyrics brim with phrases such as “You’ll be hooked for life / I’ll wrap my hooks around you,” as someone sings a love song about replacing hands with metal prostheses.
This performance-art piece – 12 songs strung together with a bit of dialogue and choreography – by Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter/music producer Corey Dargel is truly unlike anything you’ve seen or heard before. Only one 1960s precedent comes to mind: Tom Lehrer’s “Masochism Tango.”
Dargel’s twisted imagination makes love out of wanting to sever parts of one’s body. Although it sounds too weird to be palatable, rev (more…)
Corey on NPR’s Weekend Edition
Listen to the audio by visiting here.
Weekend Edition Saturday, November 1, 2008 – For his new album, Other People’s Love Songs, Corey Dargel wrote 13 personalized songs on commission for couples of all configurations: Husbands and wives, siblings, and friends. (more…)
