Exclusive: 'Why Is There Traffic?' From Blake Allen's INSOMNIA Feat. Jeanna de Waal

BroadwayWorld is excited to share an exclusive first listen from the new recording of Blake Allen's INSOMNIA: Sextets for Piano, String Quartet & Voice - Nos. 1 & 2. The track "Why Is There Traffic?" features vocals from Broadway Star Jeanna de Waal (Sweeney Todd, Diana: The Musical) as “Voice”. The full album is available this Friday, August 9.

Allen’s junior full-length record chronicles a night of an insomniac narrator and was inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Sleep and Waking” originally penned in 1934. The two multi-movement works on the album also feature Cree Carrico as “Soprano”, and the acclaimed Argus Quartet. Conducted by Allen, the works originally premiered in 2022 at Carnegie Hall.

This record follows the Billboard charting success of Allen and No Reverse’s impactful first collaboration, The Shards of an Honor Code Junkie. This second collaboration again features Grammy Nominee and collaborative pianist Christopher Koelzer and will be presented through Apple Digital Masters.

The record was produced by Allen, Ashley Kate Adams, and Mitchell Walker of No Reverse Records and was recorded and mixed by Daniel Alba (Jack White, Nora Jones) and mastered by multi-Grammy-winning engineer Oscar Zambrano of Zampol Productions (Harry Styles, Sting, Justin Timberlake).

No Reverse Records is led by Ashley Kate Adams, Lauren “LOLO” Pritchard & Mitchell Walker.

About Blake Allen

Known for scoring "strings to make you swoon" (New York Times), Blake Allen, PhD is an internationally recognized, award-winning composer, violist, and producer with a unique voice in contemporary music. Often merging the worlds of opera and musical theatre with traditional classical forms, Allen sits at the forefront of a surrealist, maximalist, and humanist world where his talents are only enumerated through the creation of a bespoke genre tailored to the brilliant artists he collaborates with.

An ex-Mormon, Allen's music is imbued with darker, queer themes juxtaposed against hypocritical meritocracy of Disney ideals. As an extension of the simplicity found in Richard M. Sherman's melodies, Allen finds ways to blur lucidity into lush melancholy without falling into saccharine cliche´. Allen's compositional credits include the chart-topping the shards of an honor code junkie (No Reverse Records), Conversion (Gravitas Ventures), Folk Wandering (Pipeline Theatre Co.), Farmyard Follies, and INSOMNIA which arrives straight from Carnegie Hall.

Having lived in the classical world for most of his life, Allen's chart-topping debut solo album, Sonatas, was released in April 2020 – four years after its debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – and depicts the ethereal worlds of the deep sea and alien life in rural America, both scientific themes that permeate Allen's creative output.

Allen received his PhD from New York University, where he created the singular, reductive analysis of György Ligeti's Viola Sonata.

Blake Allen Photo Credit: Alex S K Brown

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