I read the OP and immediately thought of Frank Zappa, Varèse, and Stravinsky.
Parts of these albums by Frank Zappa (sometimes with The Mothers of Invention) would work I think for an insane asylum motif:
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Lumpy Gravy
Hot Rats
Waka/Jawaka
Three pieces for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart. I happen to love them, and have met only one other person who feels likewise. Interestingly, both of us are professional Piano Technicians.
Edgar Varese “Poeme Electronique” - The original 1958 recording.
Oliver Messiaen’s “Dieu Parmi Nous” - if I remember correctly, this was sort of an interpretation of beatific vision, but to me it sounds like insanity. Beautiful dissonance. (Feel free to correct me on this.)
Most anything by Steroid Maximus.
Scott Walker’s two most recent albums - The Drift and Bisch Bosch.
Not always instrumental, but the vocals often come in as moans, short jabs or ululating wails over people punching meat, screeches and echoes. Can be hard to take.
If you want music that’s hard to listen to and has REALLY been played in an asylum, then check out an early Cramps performance, filmed as a live concert at the Napa Mental Asylum in 1978 [Brian Gregory, Nick Knox in the line-up for those who still stay sick].
Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8, movement 2.
Composed in a period of great personal strain, and speculated by one of his friends to have basically been the artist’s would-be “suicide note.” 'Seems fitting.
If you only need snippets, the first minute and a half of ELO’s “Fire on High” is fairly nightmarish/insane sounding.
Some of Ornette Coleman’s free jazz sounds a little crazy.
Another good one. Shostakovich’s music is the very definition of bleak.
I have mixed feelings about his music but his eighth quartet is perhaps his masterpiece. Movement 3 is one of the finest things he wrote (am I the only one who thinks of the theme from Charlie’s Angels at 0:53?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OtqABpuV-s
When I saw Broadway’s (i.e., Andrew Lloyd Webber’s) Phantom of the Opera and it began the main theme music, I was positive that they were using snippets from Rick Wakeman’s “Judas Iscariot”. I know you can’t exactly copyright a 5 note descending chromatic run, but still, the resemblance is uncanny if it’s an independent and non-derivative composition.
Pink Floyd thought about suing him for that very same motif. Pretty impressive when you can steal from two people!
You might give a listen to the Silent Hill soundtracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKWK1Wd1UXIThis bears repeating.
Fair-use means you can use small snippets in a review or something similar. Also parody is protected speech.
It does NOT mean you can just appropriate anything you like, no matter how small. At minimum, look into paying ASCAP/BMI fees.
Einstürzende Neubauten might have the level of weirdness you’re looking for:
Sehnsucht. Chains and drill sounds are involved.
Or Das Schaben
Or Halber Mensch.
Really a lot from the 1/2 Mensch album might meet your criteria.
The first thing that came to mind when you said insane instrumental music was Naked City. Sort of a combination of Jazz and hardcore punk/grindcore. Then I realised I misinterpreted “insane”.
Still, these slightly more ambient track by them might fit: Naked City's Absinthe Album Track 1 - YouTube
And as for things that might make people say "that's not music":Nurse with Wound: Nurse With Wound - "The Bottom Feeder" - YouTube (possibly NSFW)
Whitehouse: Whitehouse - total SEX - YouTube (there are vocals, but I can’t make out the words)
Throbbing Gristle: - YouTube
Based on the previous suggestions (at least the ones I read), I’m not sure if this is the kind of thing you’re going for, but I think it would suit a nightmarish scene.
Thank you,
I’ve always felt that Chopin’s Piano Sonata No 2 Op.35 Finale: Presto was the perfect depiction of pained insanity delivered by solo piano. I call the piece “Liquid Madness”.
Sonata No. 2 Op. 35 is know as the “Marche funèbre” or “The Funeral March” and the first three movements are recognized people the world over. But the fourth and final movement, Finale: Presto, is not heard as often. Perhaps because it just sounds utterly insane.
To me it is a wonderful distillation of madness in a bottle. And could be just the thing you’re looking for.
Here is a decent rendition of it, but I believe the best version I’ve ever heard was played by Andre Watts. Sadly, I couldn’t find that version on YouTube.
Good one.
Yep. This is why the intro bars of “Stairway to Heaven” do not show up in the DVD of Wayne’s World when Wayne tries out the guitar. The creators didn’t understand when the movie was released that they couldn’t use those bars under “fair use”. (I believe they were citing the 4-bar exemption, which also doesn’t exist.) I don’t remember the full of what happened, but I believe Zeppelin agreed to let bygones be bygones as far as the movie release went, but there would be a lot of royalty payments to have that scene on the DVD. So they replaced it with a meaningless guitar riff instead on the DVD’s, which kind of ruined the joke.