Phil Kline: Force of Nature (June)
Groundtone Day 4
A sonic sunrise participatory processional
Building on Force of Nature (February), which led over two hundred attendees through snowy paths during PS21’s The Dark, composer Phil Kline’s newest iteration has been transfigured to glow under the rising dawn of summer’s first sun.
Walk with us at sunrise on the summer solstice. To participate: click the sign up button to the left.
On Sunday, June 21, at 5:00 am we will gather at the PS21 Theater to prepare for the procession. Please download the Force of Nature app, on Apple or Android in advance. Charge and bring a portable bluetooth speaker linked to your phone if you have one. Wear comfortable shoes and clothing for walking in the fields.
Instructions will be sent via email in advance of the event.
Coffee and breakfast will be provided.
All ages are welcome—bring your friends, family, and curiosity for sound and community. No musical experience required!
The sunrise performance ushers in the first day of summer, the final day of Groundtone, and the first edition of the global Make Music Day in Chatham—marking a true celebration.
Kline’s electronic score incorporates recordings of the voices of local children, including from Columbia County Youth Theatre, coordinated by Edgar Acevedo. They recite lines from poems and lyrics by Lewis Carroll, Langston Hughes, John Updike, and the Rolling Stones.
Force of Nature app designed by Josh Parmenter.
Commissioned by PS21 : Center for Contemporary Performance.
Groundtone is PS21’s annual weekend-long celebration of adventurous music by an eclectic selection of today’s most original voices. Dazzling performances and immersive experiences take place across the PS21 grounds with concerts in our theater, fields, installations, and barns.
This year’s Groundtone features Sō Percussion in collaboration with Grammy-nominated songwriter Becca Stevens, pathbreaking harpist Parker Ramsay, and a full slate of artists who defy categorization. On June 21, PS21 will usher the globally-renowned Make Music Day to Chatham for the first time, with a sunrise musical procession created by Phil Kline; and Annea Lockwood’s Home Ground, a new site specific work spanning the PS21 terrain.
Groundtone is four days of audacious music, unexpected collaboration, sound, and community in the PS21 landscape.
A survivor of New York’s downtown scene, Phil Kline is known for his range and unpredictability. From vast boombox symphonies to chamber music and song cycles and stage works, his work has been hailed for originality, beauty, and subversive subtext. Out of the suburbs of Akron, Ohio, Phil came to New York City to study poetry with Kenneth Koch and David Shapiro at Columbia. After graduation, he moved to the Lower East Side, cofounded the 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 the notorious Glenn Branca Ensemble.
Early compositions used large numbers of boomboxes, such as Bachman’s Warbler, or the outdoor Christmas cult classic Unsilent Night, now a global holiday tradition. Other notable works include Exquisite Corpses, written for the Bang on a Can All-Stars; the politically-infused Zippo Songs and Rumsfeld Songs; John the Revelator, a setting of the Latin Mass written for Lionheart; and the song cycles Out Cold and Florida Man, written for Theo Bleckmann, and Ghost Story for soprano Nicoletta Berry.
(Currently working on a surreal comic opera about a family in the apocalypse, Blink!)
