Insomnia might seem like a liability for someone who needs to be creative and sharp, but not always. Sleeplessness can give the eye another perspective – as if seeing through a kind of kaleidoscope: The things on the other end are the same, but they look different, other. Tim Berne didn’t sleep the night before he and a choice international octet recorded INSOMNIA live in the studio, summer 1997. Released for the first time, INSOMNIA comprises two key Berne compositions – “the proposal” and “oPEN, cOMA,” each a half-hour long or more – refracted through an expansive, even orchestral sensibility. Eight musicians can sound like 20 in these beautifully textured arrangements, with chamber-music intimacy the order, rather than any typical big-band jazziness.