insomnia by jim haynes

of course, every artist, every musician, every author, every creative type has that thing made during the pandemic. paintings, albums, books, films, poems, all addressing and reflecting on this particular temporal blight upon our collective existence. yeah, the routines of life have been disrupted, but the drive to create never stopped, though complicated by disease, lockdowns, geopolitical upheaval, the responses to public health mandates, psychological toxicity, and a crushing malaise. and yes, "insomnia" is one of my albums constructed during the pandemic era, and i will be bold and say that this is fucking corker of a noise album.

there are any number of points of entry from which i begin to offer my thoughts on this record. the title is somewhat self-evident as to a particular impact on my sleep patterns, though the album quickly leaves behind any pathology of lack and moves onto the volatility of noise in all of its dynamics, expressed through frustration, exhaustion, failure, sickness, and sorrow. that emotional portent has gotten louder in my work as of late, through the frantic electricity of "inconclusive" (2019) though the muscular intensity of "when the sky burns" (2021) to this album, which decidedly broadens the sonic architecture through three, twenty-minute pieces that are roughly adjacent to industrial electronics, smoldering electro-acoustics, and controlled noise.

but back to my own insomnia for a second. in the mental wanderings from a particular sleepless night in early 2021, i developed the schematic for a rudimentary instrument - that which involved precisely controlled motors grinding against long rods of glass. in that narcoleptic state, i wondered if i could create harmonics through through the interplay of vibrations within a chorus of the same objects dialed into very specific revolutions per minute. upon building this rough instrument, i was delighted that such dissonant frequencies could be achieved (with considerable patience) and could also be emboldened with various electronics, radios, and synths.

it has been said that my music has not a single note within. that's not entirely true; but at the same time, such is not my interest. instead, the pieces from "insomnia" remain steadfast in my commitment towards sound that follows a variation on this theme: sustain, collapse, pivot, corrode, detonate, surge, and decline.

it also must be stated that the finished copies of "insomnia" arrived at my front door on february 24, 2022, they day when missiles began flying over kyiv and the house of edward sol, the ukrainian musician who commissioned this album for his sentimental productions. and thus, "insomnia" takes on another set of metaphors, as i can no longer extract my thoughts on this album from the despair and anger i feel about an unprovoked war. that said, edward has an entirely different, far more optimistic take on this album in relation to the war, that of a brighter future and of something to strive toward during ukraine's strife, stating that 'spiritually, i see it [this album] as an anchor for the better life.' interestingly enough, edward received his copied many many months later than i, due to the difficult logistics of navigating within a war as well as complete incompetence beyond all of our control. and he proposed a release date for this record as august 24, 2022 - the day celebrating ukranian independence. i heartily agree.

eternal gratitude to edward sol for his persistence in publishing this album. i hope i can meet him in person one day and have a drink with him.

Tracklist

1.	variant, number ten	20:00

2.	variant, number four	20:00

3.	variant, number six	20:00

Credits

released August 24, 2022

mastered by grant richardson
published by touch music / fairwood music uk ltd.

License