You are invited to Unsilent Night - a festive nouveau-caroling
event that I have the pleasure of co-organizing for the second year, along with
Sable Chan.
Get out your CD, cassette, or mp3 boombox, bundle
up, and join us for Phil Kline's 45 minute interactive sound walk through the
streets of the Old Strathcona neighbourhood in Edmonton.
5:00 pm,
Saturday December 22nd
Meet at Gazebo Park (83 Ave. & 104
St).Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/223228601144212/?fref=tswww.unsilentnight.comWHAT IS IT?
Phil
Kline’s Unsilent Night is a free outdoor participatory sound sculpture of many
individual parts, recorded on cassettes, CDs and mp3s, 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 1992, this 45-minute work has
grown into a worldwide annual communal event that has become an essential part
of many winter holiday celebrations. 2012 marks the second year of Unsilent
Night in Edmonton.
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE?
Most people consider it
loud and joyous. Glittering and mysterious. The average effect seems to be
somewhere between pacifying and invigorating. Joe Woodard of The Los Angeles
Times describes it as "A dreamy fruitcake of parts, tranquil even through its
anarchy." And K. Leander Williams in Time Out New York says “Kline’s luminous,
shimmering wash of bell tones is one of the loveliest communal new-music
experiences you’ll ever encounter, and it’s never the same twice.” The Onion
calls it “an ambient wash of heaven-sent shimmer, recognizable as seasonal
mostly for its modulating bells and time-stretched hymnal melodies.”
HOW
CAN I PARTICIPATE?
You do not need to bring a boombox to join in, but it is
more fun if you can! For those that like to plan ahead, you can download the
audio files ahead of time from www.unsilentnight.com/download.html to load onto your mp3
player, CD or cassette. We will have extra cassettes, CD's, and boomboxes
available. We will also have mp3 speakers for those who bring iPods,
smartphones, or other mp3 players. This year, an iPhone app is also
available.
Please RSVP if you do need to borrow equipment, as there is a
limited number of each item.
Plan to arrive a few minutes early to get set
up.
