Oboe, percussion and fixed sound, 2001.
for oboe, percussion and digital sound, performed by New Noise
contact composer for ‘tape part’.
Insomnia. The inability to sleep, despite attempts at rest. Like an insomniac this piece is agitated and unable to settle. The instrumentalists inhabit a dark, oppressive world which is constantly active, fragmentary and bordering on nightmare. The work was partly inspired by my own experience of insomnia, which usually strikes when I am making work or writing, and by Sylvia Plath’s poem, ‘Insomniac’.
Although composed for oboe and percussion, I’m happy for you to arrange it for any instrument and percussion or to discuss alternatives.
Losing it is a related text-based digital piece using similar materials.
Insomnia was commissioned by New Noise (Joby Burgess and Janey Miller) in 2001. Recorded on their CD Insomniac.