Guest blogger previews Mobtown Modern presentation of 'Unsilent Night'
Thanks again to Logan K. Young for this blog post:
When it comes to Christmas in Baltimore, natives and visitors alike know all about the “Miracle on 34th Street.”
Festooned with garlands, swathed in luminaries, so sparkling are the Hampden row houses there that Charm City was recently named a Top 10 Destination for Holiday Lights.
But for those who prefer their yuletide a little less Town & Country and a lot more rock ‘n’ roll, there’s always Phil Kline’s crowd-pleaser, “Unsilent Night.”
Since 1992, downtown New York composer (and erstwhile Del-Byzanteen) Phil Kline has gathered an ever-increasing number of revelers in Greenwich Village and handed each one a mix tape. After all, ‘tis truly better to give this time of year.
Each participant then ...
On the Kline tapes, however, are not carefully curated songs to get you in the Christmas spirit -- no Bing or Burl, much less Bieber -- but instead disembodied excerpts from Kline’s ambient masterpiece. From the snaked line of ghetto blasters to the trippy, but pleasant sounds themselves, the overall effect is quite striking -- like one of Gabrielli’s canzonas care of Ingram Marshall.
In a sign of the times, Kline offers .mp3s now, but not even an inert string of 1s and 0s could make his night “unbeautiful.”
For six years now, the honest, hard-working people of Baltimore have mounted their own performance of this crowd-sourced opus. In fact, “Unsilent Night” has taken on a life of its own, really, what with some sixty cities both here and abroad staging performances this month.
Saturday night, starting at 4:45 p.m., Mobtown Modern will join forces with the Enoch Pratt Southeast Anchor Branch Library to present Kline’s rite of winter. As always, the public is cordially invited to join the Highlandtown fray. Just B.Y.O.B.B. (your own boom box, that is), and they’ll provide everything else -- for free!
Eine “Kline” Nachtmusik, indeed.
FILE PHOTO
