Music for Insomnia was included in Radio Insomnia, 9 July 2023, as part of the Insomnolence exhibition at Agora Hydro-Quebec at Coeur des sciences, Hexagram-UQAM.
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For much of my adult life I have had early wakeup insomnia. It comes in waves, visiting for days or weeks at a time and then disappearing. As with many impairments, it’s not so much about overcoming the thing, as figuring out my relationship to it. I have come to accept that I will be awake for a couple hours in the middle of some nights.
I now dedicate that time to listening to music where not much happens. The genre names are all over the internet: drone, dark ambient, sedative music, etc. Honestly, sometimes I look forward to waking up in the middle of the night, knowing I can put in my earbuds and empty my mind to some experimental work or another quietly unfolding, and in an hour or two, drift off back to sleep.
You can make this kind of music with any set of instruments so long as you can somehow keep them in motion. I recently heard Matthew Davidson say the default state of a synthesizer is a drone. In that sense, it’s the converse of a stringed or wind instrument. To make them drone, you have to continue exciting a string or keep blowing. Synthesizers just drone on until the power is cut off. For this album, I focused on slightly detuning oscillators, and working within the harmonic series, sometimes choosing notes, and sometimes picking out harmonics from resonating filters. It's an old technique associated with Éliane Radigue but it doesn't get old for me.
credits
released November 29, 2023
Recorded live, no overdubs, winter and spring 2023 and mixed at le deus chats.
supported by 11 fans who also own “Music for Insomnia”
This album is just great. The sounds are bright and airy, old-school and fun! I keep coming back to it. It reminds me of the good feeling I get when I listen to Madelyn Merkey's Puzzle Music. Douglas Murray
supported by 9 fans who also own “Music for Insomnia”
A refreshing detour and next level delve from this artist, into beat sculpting and sound design that both massages the ears and holds attention; a deep space to get lost in!
Loved it. so_nam