Perhaps working against him is the fact that his scores don't draw much attention to themselves outside of the context of their films, a situation that will kill the appeal of Insomnia for listeners seeking an engaging soundscape of at least minimal warmth. Instead of using any overt thematic development in Insomnia that could be particularly memorable in any of its slightly altered forms, Julyan slowly elaborates on a few lengthy progressions of disjointed chords to identify the work. This title theme, which really only reaches out to the listener in its end titles performance, spends a full hour of bubbling beneath the surface before it matures, aiding in the accompaniment of the music within the film but drawing several blanks throughout the first half of the score on album. Despite the title of "Kay's Theme," the motif suggested in the title is nothing more than half a minute of a meandering piano, wandering aimlessly in the fog and adhering to the bleak tone of the score for Insomnia as a whole. The music flirts with several levels of boredom throughout the first half of its album presentation, but its representation of the effects of the medical condition of insomnia grow in the second half. Each cue becomes steadily more pronounced in its progressions as the Al Pacino's detective wits become more distorted (though Julyan curiously avoids dissolving from harmony to disjointed dissonance as a tactic). The chopping strings of "Walter's Lake House" are the culmination of this transformation. There are plenty of synthesized effects to supplement the small to moderate orchestra in this task, including a use of the horns to sound like an approaching blast of a train whistle. The sound effect of a firing handgun is emulated in "Fog," intelligently matching the pivotal scene's action. Other similar electronic samplings were a staple of Julyan's early career as well, and these elements provide most of the suspenseful touches in the score.

Instead of using any crashing or banging orchestral cues as, for instance, Christopher Young might prefer to utilize, Julyan inserts the samples at low volumes but with a sudden arrival, and that's what causes the score to maintain its uneasy edge. Julyan also succeeds in producing eerie music for particular scenes by ensuring that there is never true harmony in the score. This rule of thumb may simply seem universal for all suspense scores, but Julyan does remarkably well in soliciting an elevated performance from the orchestra that would be perfectly harmonious if not for one constantly off key group of players in its ranks. This technique, however, makes the score a burden on album. There are few scores that exhibit such a grim personality as this one, failing to provide a glimpse of sunlight despite the abundance of it in the picture. With this challenging personality in mind, the entirety of Insomnia, as a listening experience, will appeal to a very small, specific crowd of listeners who seek the dour mood of a subtle suspense score. It's not a piece of music that can be recommended to most listeners, not because it is too challenging, but instead because it is a work that is perfectly tailored for the film and should be enjoyed in that context instead. Normally, scores like this receive low ratings, but that is typically due to the fact that mind-numbing atmospheric material is usually applied to a film due to budget restrictions rather than artistic merit. In this case, Julyan represents the concept of a conflicted and increasingly agitated insomniac very well, and his approach therefore deserves due praise. There are three or four cues of chasing or action material that provides a sneak peek at the kind of edgy, extroverted music that Julyan could produce for other genres, and it would be both interesting and rewarding to hear him expand upon those ideas in another musical genre. The album for Insomnia, meanwhile, is aimed mostly at enthusiasts of the film and is potentially (and ironically) a good tool with which to tackle insomnia.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download