Disc Details

Contents

Work Title	Composer
Banshee	Simon Holt	Listen
Niobe	Thea Musgrave	Listen

Reviews

• Janey Miller's exquisite oboe, Joby Burgess's virtuosic percussion and sound-blowing electronics make new noise's Insomniac blindingly vivid for anyone with a sense of musical adventure. There's a lot that's dark and disturbing here as the title track implies, but there's also haunting beauty - Zorn's Bith Aneth and Musgrave's Niobe, excitement and discovery - Alvarez's Temazcal and the blues.
  Clare Mackney, Birmingham Post, 01 November 2003
• This disc has a freshness about it - the use of electronics combined with less conventional percussion such as sandpaper, a whip and log drums in Cameron Sinclair's The Fly make the music sound very distinctive and quite unique. Another highlight is the brilliant rendition of Thea Musgrave's Niobe, which shows of Janey Miller's virtuosic technique.
  , Musician, 01 September 2003
• You won't find much aural wallpaper on Insomniac, the debut release, on their own label, of new noise, a fashionably lower-case oboe and percussion duo formed in 1999. Cameron Sinclair's opening track pays homage to the old sci-fi movie The Fly. The second, Simon Holt's Banshee, turns the oboe into a wailing monster; while Katharine Norman's Insomnia thrusts us into a ten-minute nightmare of dark, itchy sounds smothered in electronics. This isn't a CD to iron shirts by. The two musicians - Janey Miller and Joby Burgess - attack such scores with an almost frightening vigour and skill. Sour, piercing notes sail out of Miller in breaths that never end; the Devil would appreciate Burgess's dexterity with drums, gongs, djembes, cymbals, whip and the rest of a large arsenal.
  Geoff Brown, The Times, 01 July 2003