INSOMNIA

Insomnia is a musical spectacle, an experimental, contemporary electronic opera created from our current condition of being subjected to algorithms that shape us and decide for us.

On stage, a solitary figure, barricaded in a small space, tries to survive an endless succession of sleepless nights produced by interaction with social networks. Never tearing away from their screen, the solitary figure performs meaningless actions while being observed and observing, seduced or kidnapped by algorithms that lead them repeatedly, in an infinite loop, to the same place.

Continuing the exploration initiated with «Automaton» (M100, 2017, based on the probable «Singularity» of Artificial Intelligence), «Insomnia» is a work created from algorithms and functions as a set of continuous unconnected events, like our thoughts on a sleepless night or like the «scroll» we do on Instagram or TikTok. Thus, the work becomes a collage where the guiding thread is a numerical account that the subject restarts and repeats occasionally (one, two, three, four) and from which they reflect, comment to themselves, emulate typical video tutorials or live broadcasts: «Did you know that…?» «Anyone else can’t sleep?» «Why don’t they invent an algorithm to disconnect?» «Here, I live millions of lives, lives from fifteen to sixty seconds»…

In «Insomnia,» the subject on stage is all of us confronted with our own delusions within our own algorithms and infinite daily loops that we live in our small phone trenches from which, with more or less shelter, we pretend to glimpse the world.

OSCAR CARMONA: 

Concepts, composition, electronics, texts, interactive lights.

VERTIXE SONORA ENSEMBLE:

Enrique Martínez: voice

Pablo Coello: saxophones

David Durán: piano

Diego Ventoso: drums/vibraphone

Oscar Carmona: electronics/interactive lights

Iván Ferrer: sound diffusion

Claudio Pizarro: light design

Production: Xornadas de Música Contemporánea de Santiago de Compostela

Premiere: June 27, 2023

ESCENES:

01.- No puedo dormir 1 – (I can’t sleep 1) – (06.40)

02.- Prisionero – (Prisoner) – (05.00)

03.- No puedo dormir 2 – (I can’t sleep 2) (03.55)

04.- Tik tok – (Tik tok) – (03.32)

05.- No puedo dormir 3 – (I can’t sleep 3) – (02.44)

06.- Interludio – (Interlude) – (05.05)

07.- Sígueme – (Follow me) – (05.22)

08.- No puedo dormir 4 – (I can’t sleep 4) – (07.20)

09.- Me gusta – (I like it) – (04.00)

10.- No puedo dormir 5 – (I can’t sleep 5) – (04.25)

11.- Algoritmos 1 – (Algorithms 1) – (02.58)

12.- Algoritmos 2 – (Algorithms 2) – (05.10)

13.- Epílogo – (Epilogue) – (09.10)