Unsilent night

Having a blast with holiday music

It's a melange of experimental sound and holiday cheer blasting from the boom boxes of gleeful marauders, forming an electronic, street caroling symphony.

The New York Times called it "a holiday rite," immersing each listener "in suspended wonderment as if time itself has paused."

The Los Angeles Times described it as "A dreamy fruitcake of parts," while The Guardian simply deemed it "surprisingly beautiful."

The event is UnSilent Night, and for the fourth consecutive year, The New Music Collective will host a local installment of the musical stroll Saturday.

UnSilent Night began with Phil Kline, an internationally known performer, artist and musician. Kline is best known for founding bands like The Del-Byzanteens with Jim Jarmusch, playing in the Glenn Branca Ensemble and for "Zippo Songs," an album based on poems inscribed on Zippo lighters by Vietnam veterans.

When Kline burst onto the New York art scene in the late '80s, he had serious ambitions of becoming a composer. Inspired by experimental musicians such as Brian Eno, Kline was devising ways to create alternative compositions using "tape loops and recorders as a sound source," he said. "I was doing performance pieces at the time ... mainly on vocals with 12 identical boom boxes," he explained, taking a break from his latest work to do a phone interview from New York. "I would sing into tape loops and make these clouds of sound. As a result, I had lots of boom boxes."

Kline was fascinated with the "multitonal spray of sound" created by playing looped recordings on different stereos, hitting play at slightly different times. The result was an interactive din of music influenced by timing, recording and medium.

In addition to shaping "sound sculptures," Kline was interested in music on the march. The artist toyed with forming a sonorous parade of performers, playing mini Casio keyboards (it was the '80s) while marching through the streets. He was interested in large orchestras of electronic sound made from tape players and crafted noise.

While Kline was figuring out the kinks, a peer suggested a more traditional performance.

"A friend of mine kept talking about doing some sort of Christmas caroling," he recalled. It was then that he says "something clicked." Kline knew that he would write a Christmas piece, an electronic carol of sorts, meant to be played on boom boxes and paraded through the streets.

He set to work arranging a 45-minute composition of holiday sounds. The work was split into four parts and placed on cassette tapes. Each participant would play a vital role and one-fourth of the composition. Kline chose ethereal clips of choral singing, chimes and bells intertwined with pulsating electronic and instrumental hums. As a walking piece, it was designed with New York's landscape in mind. When marchers passed churches for example, scores of bells would ring.

As Broadway approached, sounds shifted to tense, sparkly music to mirror the holiday hustle in the neighborhood. The work was choreographed to begin and end in a park, starting in Washington Square and culminating in Tompkins Square.

Humble beginnings

The first UnSilent Night debuted in 1992. With fate in his favor, Kline's hand-typed press releases were picked up by The New Yorker and The New York Times, securing about 50 people for the walk.

Boom boxes and cassettes were handed out, and a countdown was performed. Kline describes the first moment of sound as being magical, "... suddenly as if the air was filled with delicately swirling musical snow."

Video of early UnSilent Nights portrays a palpable sense of connectivity in the crowd despite most being strangers. Participants, at first shuffling awkwardly in the cold, transformed into friends, allied by the touch of their play buttons. There were shared smiles, hugs and kisses celebrating the end of the promenade.

The first event had such an impact that Kline was asked to do it again, and again after that. By 2000, other cities requested the rights to use the composition to create their own UnSilent Nights. More than 25 international cities walk each December.

In the Lowcountry

In 2006, The New Music Collective brought the event to Charleston. Nathan Koci and Ron Wiltrout, two founding members, were familiar with Kline's work. After meeting the artist at an event in New York, Koci was inspired to bring UnSilent Night to the Lowcountry. Koci thought it was a great way to bring "adventurous contemporary art to the uninitiated." Bill Carson, an adviser to the group, agreed but thought that the performance piece was "surprisingly accessible." "While weird in concept," he continued, "it's very easy to get. It's about sharing and caroling. You don't have to be big into music to get it."

The first Charleston event was small with 10-15 people. As years progressed, the event grew, with 40 people strolling last year. Like Kline's route, the local version begins and ends with a park, starting at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park and ending in Marion Square. Past marchers were struck by the same sense of bonding seen in New York. Entire families turned out, dressed in festive attire, toting pets and mini speakers.

Wiltrout and Carson remember laptops perched in the laps of babies being pushed in strollers. "It's an interpersonal community experience," said Carson, marked by "sharing an unspoken moment with strangers." The jaunt can draw curious looks from those unfamiliar with the project. "People on King Street often get confused, sort of looking around like where is this sound coming from, what are you doing and what's going on?" says Koci. "Walking past restaurants is fun, though. It's like a really odd minute of someone's day."

The local procession can take on a critical-mass feel with interested parties joining the walk at various intervals.

UnSilent Night has evolved with the advance of technology. Cassettes and CDs still are distributed, but most download an audio file, bringing mini speakers and laptops to project sound.

The last minutes of the composition will be held under the holiday lights in the park.

If you go

What: UnSilent Night, an annual boom box caroling procession through the streets of downtown Charleston.

Where: The City Gallery at Waterfront Park at 34 Prioleau Street. Participants should meet on the Prioleau Street side of the building.

When: Saturday. Meet at 5 p.m. Walk 5:15-6:30 p.m.

Route: From the gallery, walkers will head North to Vendue Range, west to East Bay Street, north to Market Street, west to King Street and north to Marion Square, ending under the holiday lights.

Cost: Free.

Other: RSVP is required. E-mail ron@newmusiccollective.org to specify whether you will need a tape, downloadable MP3 or CD. If you have a boom box, speakers or alternate player, bring it! The more participants, the stronger the experience.

Contact Information: The New Music Collective, www.newmusiccollective.org, info@newmusiccollective.org and ron@newmusiccollective.org.

Map of the Route: Go to postandcourier.com/preview