Matt Berry – Music for Insomniacs

On screen, Matt Berry is all about that voice: a sonorous, knee-trembling baritone that garlands every utterance in comic grandiloquence. Across his parallel music career, however, Berry has tended to keep his vocal input comparatively subdued, with works like 2013’s Kill the Wolf refraining from the puffed-up operatics with which he’s readily associated. Consequently, for all their humorous touches, Berry’s albums-to-date have demanded to be taken seriously, not to be elided with his voluble screen persona or dismissed as shallow parody.

Music for Insomniacs greatens this distinction by dispensing entirely with discernible vocals (not to mention conventional song structure) and offering instead two extended suites of drifting ambience. Conceptually, it works wonderfully: composed during an extended bout of the titular disorder, Berry uses a combination of fluid synths and more peculiar, disruptive elements to evoke a dreamy disassociation that’s both relaxing and borderline hysterical. Overall, the appeal may be relatively niche, but it’s a recommended niche. [Chris Buckle]