First I couldn't use the expression "effect("Turbulent Noise")(21) + time * 2000" on Turbulent Noise because the evolution stopped after 15-16 seconds although there were no additional keyframes or other expressions on that layer and the evolution indicator showed that it was evolving. I could only resolve that issue by manually setting keyframes with an evolution setting of up to 100. When I entered 200 or 300 the freeze was back.
Then, the layer in question suddenly increased in opacity randomly, again without any changes, keyframes, other layers etc.
What could be the issue?