On Saturday, December 12 at 7:00pm, composer Phil Kline will lead a massive chorus of boomboxes from the West Village to the East Village in the 18th annual holiday presentation of UNSILENT NIGHT. People gather at the arch in Washington Square Park, and less than an hour and mile later, end up in Tompkins Square Park.
UNSILENT NIGHT is Kline's free outdoor participatory sound sculpture of many individual parts, recorded on cassettes, CD's and mp3's, and played through a roving swarm of boomboxes carried through city streets every December. People bring their own boomboxes and drift peacefully through a cloud of sound which is different from every listener's perspective.
Since its debut in 1992, UNSILENT NIGHT has become a cult holiday tradition in NY, drawing crowds of up to 1,500 participants. It has also grown into a worldwide annual event, presented in over 45 cities and on three continents.
Kline says: "Every year I present UNSILENT NIGHT, which is like a Christmas caroling party except we don't sing, but rather carry boomboxes, each playing a separate tape or CD which is part of the piece. In effect, we become a city-block-long stereo system."
The Village Voice describes UNSILENT NIGHT as "a marvelously fluid, traveling spatial sound sculpture that disintegrates and reforms at nearly every stop light." Time Out calls the event "an electro-happening" and depicts the music as "a winter wonderland of shimmering sleigh bells, chimes and grand chorales."
How did UNSILENT NIGHT begin? In 1992, Phil Kline had an idea for a public artwork in the form of a holiday caroling party. He composed a multi-track electronic piece that was 45 minutes long (the length of a cassette tape), invited a few dozen friends who gathered in Greenwich Village, gave each person a boombox with one of four tapes in it, and instructed everyone to hit PLAY simultaneously. What followed was a sound unlike anything they had ever heard before: an evanescence filled the air, reverberating off the buildings and streets as the crowd walked a pre-determined route. Friends immediately suggested the event be repeated the next year, and the rest is history.
In NYC, it is recommended that participants arrive by 6:45 pm at the arch in Washington Square.
The event is free, and will be held rain or shine.
Phil Kline will hand out a limited number of boomboxes-and cassettes and CD's for those who bring their own players. The public is strongly encouraged to bring their own boomboxes. Mp3 downloads of the individual tracks will be available on the UNSILENT NIGHT website, so pod-docks and other sound-blasters can be carried. People have even brought their laptops hooked up to large speakers mounted on a wagon.
The CD of UNSILENT NIGHT is available on Cantaloupe Music (CA21005);
visit www.cantaloupemusic.com.
