nnl records : insomniac : reviews

"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."
The Times, Geoff Brown July 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 off Janey Miller's virtuosic technique."
Musician, September 2003

"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."
The Birmingham Post, Clare Mackney, November 2003

"Convential ideas of potential instrumental combination are here thrown out of the window: indeed you would be forgiven for making oboe-plus-percussion the last pairing you might think of. Though curiously, Wagner was said to consider the most important players in his orchestra the oboist and the timpanist...

In Janey Miller, new noise has a player of huge versatility, and clearly an enormus understanding and enthusiasim for contemporary music. By collaborating with percussion, the doors are immediately opened on a veritable Aladdin's Cave of colours and textures, employed to the full by budding virtuoso Joby Burgess.

...performed with synchromesh confidence...a must for collectors of both stimulating playing and fascinating novelties."
Clive Fairbairn, Double Reed News, Winter 2003

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