In what has become a cult holiday tradition, Phil Kline goes “electronic caroling” through the streets of New York’s Greenwich Village with a parade of boomboxes. Creating a euphoric blend of other-worldly voices and bells, Kline’s ambient clouds of sound emerge from choirs of boomboxes.

"Unsilent Night" is a sound sculpture of many individual parts, recorded on cassette tapes and played through multiple moving bommboxes. One is constantly drifting in and around a cloud of sound which is different in every performance and from each listener's perspective. In order to best present all the music in something like its original setting, this CD was made from a composite of several live recordings of the boomboxes with some material recorded in the studio.

Vocals: Alexandra Montano, with Carla Lother and Phil Kline

Produced by Phil Kline and Bradford Reed
Recorded by Bradford Reed May 2001, various locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Selden, NY
Mixed by Bradford Reed and Phil Kline at Ft./Lb. Studios, Brooklyn, NY, June 2001
Mastered by Andreas K. Meyer at Sony Music Studios, June 14, 2001

Phil Kline's music published by Haifisch Music (ASCAP)

Photos by Tom Jarmusch
Package design by Carla Leighton at gloo design

Special thanks to:
William Ryan and the Suffolk Community College Contemporary Music Ensemble: Jason Alborough, Jesus Manuel Berard, Vanessa Bonet, Jamie Carillo, Lisa Casal, Michael Clark, Anne DeKenipp, Virginia DiMiceli, Jessica Drozd, Joseph J. Fograzzo, David Greenberg, Duane Haynes, Ryan Himpler, Joe Jannetto, William Jantz, Andrew Keegan, Ann McInerney, Frank A. Monastero, Corey Richtberg, Rachael Rodgers, Lee Rosenberg, Michael Sarling, Melanie Scalice, Pete Stumme, Naomi Volkel.

In the winter of 1992, I made a piece in the form of a Christmas caroling party. I recorded different partsof the piece onto cassettes, got a few dozen friends with boomboxes together, gave them each a cassette. We started them all at once and walked around the village. The audience was us and whoever happened to be passing by.

We've done it every year since then, with the music changing a little and the crowds getting much larger. If you would like to join us this year in New York or get more information about Unsilent Night, go on the internet to www.mindspring.com/~boombox or email boombox@mindspring.com.

Cantaloupe Music
Executive Producers: Michael Gordon, David Lang, Kenny Savelson, and Julia Wolfe
Label Manager: Ken Thomson
Publicity: Aleba Gartner Associates, NYC

Cantaloupe thanks: Carla Leighton, Adam Wolfensohn, Bang on a Can, Nadine Goellner, and Rachel Cohen.

For more about everything you hear, artist bios, and links, go to cantaloupemusic.com.