Ethan T. Parcell is an artist (composer, performer, songwriter and more) based in Chicago. We have previously covered Parcell’s work under the moniker The World Without Parking Lots, marvelling at his album Seventh Song Counts the Engines, which we described as “equal parts sad and hopeful…mak[ing] a bold statement in a circuitous whisper.”
One of Parcell’s main focuses is leading an experimental opera ensemble Focus Group LLC, with whom he has written and performed three operas—World Record, Wasted Light, and Witness Reunion. The group sees Parcell joined by a host of collaborators, including Hannah Bureau, Bekah Dotzel, Kenan Serenbetz, Eric Hollander and Alec Watson, as well as Illinois’ Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra on Witness Reunion.
Earlier this year, Parcell released Plays from the Operas Alone, a collection of songs from the three productions. From the soft pealing guitar that begins opener ‘Raise Awareness Happy Birthday’, it’s clear that these are not the opera songs you may be imagining. As its title suggests, the record sees Parcell take songs from the operas and strip them right back, playing and singing them by himself in a style reminiscent of the World Without Parking Lots album. “The ten pieces here are some of the more plainly song-oriented moments from the operas,” Parcell describes. “Moments that I wanted to revisit after learning more about them from realizing them in their original operatic forms, and living with them on record for a while.”
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And what is opera anyway? Even in their most fully-realised form, these songs do not conform to the medium’s stereotypes. It’s something Parcell is aware of. “There’s some oppositional energy at play on my part,” he says when asked about the ‘opera’ tag. “That I know and love all the images and sounds that come to mind that when one hears the word ‘opera’—and which of those we play into and which we transgress.” In the end, he settles on a definition by composer Robert Ashley, who described an opera as “characters in a landscape telling stories musically,” something the work of Ethan T. Parcell and Focus Group LLC undoubtedly lives up to.
Drawing inspiration from numerous sources, including the distinctive folk songs of Will Oldham, David Antin’s talk poems and the work of artist/activist/educator Corita Kent, Parcell’s songs are a kind of audible contemplation, what he describes as “messes of thought” which find meaning as they unravel. Much like Phil Elverum on recent Mount Eerie releases, tracks like ‘Witness Reunion’ feel like they’re working toward an answer in real time, as though each word and sentence is a brick added to the last. Progressing in situ, planned no further than the very next step.
But if this suggests the songs have a haphazard sound, do not be misled. The loose approach allows a more intuitive flow, logic and order not governed by some outside force but something altogether more intrinsic. ‘Tornado ’67’ references the idea of ‘familial sadness’, the thought that trauma is an hereditary, cross generational phenomenon, and the concept speaks to Parcell’s writing style as a whole. As if some force exists beyond the ordinary sense of the world, something to do with memory and emotion and things bigger than ourselves, always available at an individual level yet near impossible to communicate more widely.
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Parcell’s work is an attempt to put that right. The narrative of the operas can be summarised as “a singer in the Midwest […] earnestly trying to do some thorough emotional processing,” Parcell explains, be it about the past in World Record, the present in Wasted Light or the future in Witness Reunion. “Inside the narrative of the operas, the singer is reaching for a perfectly sung representation of all this contemplation—sort of planning a great big song or performance in front of us, but the planning is what we hear in the operas—not the performance.”
The result is something far-reaching but incredibly personal, an accumulation of life’s modest details that works, paradoxically, to distill what it means to be alive. Parcell returns to Robert Ashley’s redefinition of opera to make this clear. “I want to take it further and continue to reduce its size,” he describes. “In a metaphysical sense. I think opera can and should be small, about small things, from small voices telling small stories.” And within humble intentions lies something no amount of grandiosity could uncover.
Plays from the Operas Alone is out now and you can get it on a name-your-price basis from the Ethan T. Parcell Bandcamp page. The full studio recordings of each opera are there too, so be sure to check them out.
Photo by R.E. Maley