In the spirit of community and creativity, Kingston will host its sixth annual Unsilent Night on Dec. 19, an immersive, musical walking experience created by composer Phil Kline. The event transforms the streets into a moving soundscape, inviting participants to become part of a living, breathing musical composition.
Kline, a veteran of New York City’s downtown scene with a résumé that zigzags from rock clubs to revered museums, has long delighted in blurring the boundaries between public art and public ritual. Raised in Akron, Ohio, he came to New York to study English literature and music at Columbia University, then embedded himself in the unruly creative ferment of the early 1980s East Village. He co-founded the post-punk band the Del-Byzanteens with Jim Jarmusch and James Nares, collaborated with Nan Goldin on the soundtrack to “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency,” and played guitar in Glenn Branca’s cacophonous ensemble, allexperiences that shaped his appetite for art that is social, subversive and never quite where most expect it to land.
Unsilent Night debuted in Greenwich Village in 1992 and has since traveled to more than 175 cities on five continents. The premise is simple: Participants walk a set route while playing one of four prerecorded tracks on phones, speakers or whatever portable device they can wrangle. The piece lasts 45 minutes, “the length of one side of a cassette,” Kline likes to remind people, and the format he originally composed for.
In practice, Unsilent Night is far more than a clever technological conceit. Its chiming, layered textures refract through streets and buildings, creating what one Wall Street Journal critic described as “bell sounds [that] lap up against buildings and ricochet all around,” warming “even the coldest of hearts.”
That sense of immersion has resonated with critics over the years. Jon Pareles ofThe New York Times called the experience “suspended wonderment.”
For Kevin Muth, the organizer of the Kingston event, that feeling was immediate and personal.
“I went to my first Unsilent Night in Manhattan in 2002,” Muth said. “I was new in town, hadn’t quite found my people yet, but braved the cold and took the subway with my boombox to Washington Square Park. It was snowing. There were hundreds of people gathered around the fountain and volunteers handing out cassette tapes. There was a countdown, and we all pressed play at the same time and started walking. The music was sparkling and shimmering, and the crowd felt like a funny mix of solemn and festive. As the procession slowly made its way east, the sounds changed from chimes, to choruses, to church bells, bouncing off the buildings and mixing with the honking horns of traffic waiting for us to pass. When the crowd reached the Christmas tree in Tompkins Square Park, the music faded except for one warbling boombox with dying batteries that made everybody laugh. The crowd cheered and dispersed, and it became one of my favorite annual holiday traditions.”
This year’s walk will begin at Frog Alley Park in Kingston’s Uptown/Stockade District at 6 p.m. Participants are encouraged to download the track or the Unsilent Night app in advance and bring Bluetooth speakers if possible. The route takes about 45 minutes and is, as Muth describes it, “a moving boombox parade.”
Kline has likened the experience to a contemporary twist on a familiar holiday tradition. “I always thought of it as being sort of a variation on Christmas caroling,” Kline said, “a combination of my own work and memories of caroling back in Ohio.”
For Muth, the event’s enduring appeal lies in its openness and emotional range. “I really love this event because the holiday season can mean different things to different people,” he said. “For some, it’s a time of celebration and joy, and for others, it may be a time of reflection, or sadness. This event allows us to come together and experience the season however we need to.”
On Dec. 19, residents are invited to come as they are and take part in the transformation of Kingston’s streets. As Kline put it, “Sometimes the only way to escape is to use your imagination.”
For more information, visit unsilentnight.com.
Cella’s paintings are tucked in almost every available space thoughout Little Store Antiques. L. Tomaino
