The Night Has A Thousand Voices (Insomnia)

Cities and Memory – Music for Sleep

#14 – FRANCE LORRAINE, Common Midwife Toads – Lerouville, Lorraine, France. 05.06.2022. Colin Hunter.wav

Have you ever had one of those nights when you just can’t get to sleep no matter what you do?

As always, there’s a story behind my track about Insomnia.

At first, when I was allocated sound #14, I thought I might create a lullaby from the chirping noises of the toads, since they were Midwife Toads. Something quiet and ambient that would lull your baby to sleep.

However, also as always, tracks seem to want to go their own way. They want to be what they want to be.

In this case, noise and competing noises.

Just back from an eventful holiday, I was thinking about how our minds and ears pick out the slightest noise(s) when we are struggling to get to sleep. In my case, having been caught up in Storm Polly in the Netherlands, the hurricane outside the room, rain lashing on the windows and the water dripping and pipes clanking all night from downstairs air conditioning, just made it impossible to get a good night’s sleep. Tossing and turning, every sound was magnified and my brain just couldn’t switch off. 

That feeling of total exhaustion when you’ve not only battled the night but also every tiny squeak, bang, rasp, drip, flush, cough, of your darkened room….Oh, and there’s always a fly or moth buzzing or flitting about.

This is where the idea of a track of many sounds competing against each other came from.

As the night begins, the distant chirp of a toad is soon overtaken by birds and insects and that annoying fly, all competing with each other, all getting louder, and all vying for space in your head as you just can’t switch off.

The track was created from the original soundfile, either by samples, midi info, sound shaping and changes in frequencies, to create a sound world of flying things, midges, birds, crickets, insects, rain, water drips, and an underlying mechanised drone of some sort of machine. It is a cacophony of competing noises that your mind highlights and wanders to and from in desperation to find some peace. 

In the end, it goes silent, as eventually you fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion. 

Not so much Music for Sleep but a noisy nightmare you wish to escape.

I probably misunderstood the context of this project from Cities and Memory as my track would certainly not lull you to sleep but unfortunately my relationship with sleep is a conflicted one, having had insomnia for years, so best listened through headphones to get the full effect but beware loud sounds.