Dust Off Those Boomboxes, Charge Up the IPods and IPhones: Phil Kline's Unsilent Night Returns to Seattle

Want to celebrate the Winter Solstice with something musical this year, but door-to-door Christmas caroling's not in the cards? On December 21st, along with several Seattle arts organizations, you might try performing Unsilent Night.

Seattle composer Josh Parmenter, the Seattle Composer's Salon, and Nonsequitur are organizing a performance of the piece, described on Kline's website as "a unique mobile sound sculpture." This piece has been performed in different cities around the world -- it's celebrating its twentieth anniversary in New York City -- and it's coming back to Seattle next week. (The last Seattle performance was in 2007.)

How does it work? At 6:30PM, participants will meet at Wallingford's Chapel Performance Space (4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 4th floor) to organize the performance. After that, they'll walk around the neighborhood, all playing slightly different parts of the same piece at different times. The idea is that everyone will be walking through a cloud of sound. They'll meet back at 8:00PM at the Chapel Performance Space for a "New Music Holiday Office Party," sponsored by the Seattle Composers' Salon.

Sound lovers from old-school boombox owners to mobile device users (with speakers) are invited to attend this holiday caroling walk through Wallingford -- n other words, anyone with a portable sound system. It's a free, all-ages event, so families are welcome. And if you have an Idevice (Phone, Pad, Pod), you can download the free app from Parmenter's Seattle-based company Rockmore Tech, which will also play the piece.

For more information about the Seattle event, interested participants can contact Josh Parmenter. More background information is at the Unsilent Night website, as well as a recent radio interview with composer Phil Kline, reflecting about the last 20 years of performing the piece.