Phil Kline

Host

Phil Kline is a composer who makes music in many genres and contexts, from experimental electronics and sound installations to songs, choral, theater, chamber and orchestral music.

A veteran of New York’s downtown scene, Phil Kline stands out for his range and unpredictability. From vast boombox symphonies to chamber music and song cycles, his work has been hailed for its originality, beauty, subversive subtext, and wry humor. Early in his career he cofounded the rock 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.

Some of his early work evolved from performance art and used large numbers of boomboxes, such as the outdoor Christmas cult classic Unsilent Night, which is now an annual holiday tradition celebrated around the world. 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 early music specialists Lionheart; and the Sinatra-inspired song cycle Out Cold, written for Theo Bleckmann and premiered at BAM’s Next Wave Festival.

Phil contributes music programming, anecdotes, and insights to New Sounds Radio and is currently collaborating with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch on a music theater spectacle about Nikola Tesla. His music is available on the Cantaloupe, Starkland, and CRI record labels.

Phil Kline appears in the following:

Cruelty, Tranquility, Fireworks, and the Same Old Question

Monday, July 02, 2018

Host Phil Kline shares the distinctly and hecticly American music of Charles Ives, alongside Julia Wolfe's "Cruel Sister" and takes on traditional hymns by Ingram Marshall and many more.

Today at 11 am on New Sounds Radio: Four Marys, 158 Trombones, 200 Years

Monday, June 25, 2018

Host Phil Kline offers up Luciano Berio’s "Sinfonia" – an all-encompassing search for the soul of the world in the whirl of the 1960s – among other music by John Supko and Julia Wolfe.

Today at 11 am on New Sounds Radio: Unicorns, Tube Screamers, and Saucy Maids

Monday, June 18, 2018

On this week's episode, music by Kaija Saariaho inspired by 15th-century tapestries, a ravishingly enhanced version of a work of Morton Feldman's from Mexican producer Murcof, and more.

Listen at 11 am on New Sounds Radio: Rolling Rivers and Late Night Trains

Monday, June 11, 2018

For host Phil Kline, the music of Ann Southam "flows, naturally and inexorably, tonal but capable of surprise, as carefully chosen dissonances startle like drops of blood on snow."

Today at 11 am on New Sounds Radio: Mixed Emotions, Melancholy Loops and Auras

Monday, June 04, 2018

Host Phil Kline looks for divination in the library, from William Basinski’s slowly unfolding and redemptive "Melancholia" to the dreamy hesitancy of Mica Levi's score to "Jackie."

Listen Today at 11 am on New Sounds Radio: Rite of Spring Fever

Monday, May 28, 2018

Host Phil Kline shares a modern recording by Les Siècles of Igor Stravinsky's epic "Rite of Spring" that approximates some of the local colors of the legendary Paris premiere.

Tonight at 7 pm on New Sounds Radio: Pioneer Days with Monk, Eastman and Branca

Monday, May 21, 2018

Host Phil Kline shares music by Meredith Monk, Julius Eastman, and Glenn Branca – three fierce, idiosyncratic composers who were true originals of downtown music in the '70s and '80s.

Glenn Branca, Atom Splitter and Mind-Blowing Musician, Dies at 69

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

There will not and cannot be another Glenn Branca. Even over centuries, no consortium of heredity, history and chemistry could produce another. It would be too much.
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Tonight at 9 pm on New Sounds Radio: Music, Mist, Madness

Monday, May 14, 2018

Host Phil Kline shares works inspired by the tragedies of Shakespeare, from Toru Takemitsu's take on "King Lear" to Barbara Hannigan's Ophelia from Hans Abrahamsen's "let me tell you."

Today at 11 am on New Sounds Radio: Brooklyn Raga Massive's Soaring 'In C'

Monday, May 07, 2018

After 50 years and dozens of recordings, it’s hard to be surprised by a new version of Terry Riley's "In C," but the new version by Brooklyn Raga Massive is one of the great ones.

Tonight at 7 pm on New Sounds Radio: Bach, Brad, and Braids

Monday, April 30, 2018

Clementine Kline joins host/father Phil Kline for Take Your Child to Work Day on this week's episode, which features music by Meredith Monk, Andy Akiho, Laurie Spiegel, and more.

Tonight at 7 pm on New Sounds Radio: Anguished Songs of Defiant Voices

Monday, April 23, 2018

There are few pieces of music stranger or more remarkable than Danish composer Rued Langgaard’s 'Music of the Spheres.' Hear that and solo concert by Julius Eastman, lost for 40 years. 

I Love a Piano

Monday, April 16, 2018

On this week's episode, Phil Kline shares music with pianos hammered, mangled, caressed and processed by John Cage, Molly Joyce, Galina Ustvolskaja, and Annie Gosfield.

Today at 4 pm on New Sounds Radio: Sirens, Drones, Salutes and Prayers

Monday, April 09, 2018

Host Phil Kline explores the wild and cosmic connections between inspiration and creative acts, and shares an enigmatic tribute to a demolished artists space in Williamsburg.

Shades of Unsilence

Monday, April 02, 2018

Some silences are louder than others. Some are just quiet. Some are provocative, some are just beautiful. Host Phil Kline shares music from John Cage, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and more.

Tonight at 9 pm on New Sounds Radio: Philip Glass with Laptops, Electric Guitars

Monday, March 26, 2018

Of all Philip Glass’s early masterpieces, "Music with Changing Parts" is Phil Kline's favorite. The Salt Lake Electric Ensemble's new version is a wild wall of sound. 

Radio Can Be a Lifeline, Phil Kline's Unsilence

Monday, March 19, 2018

Host Phil Kline confides that as kid, he went to bed with a radio under his pillow, searching for signals of life outside Akron. Listen to his show, Unsilence, Wednesdays at 11 am.

'The Psalms Experience' Recap Program 1: Mortal Leadership and Divine Guidance

Friday, November 03, 2017

WQXR writers and contributors discuss the opening concert of Lincoln Center's White Light Festival's Psalms Experience.
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Celebrating Trickster, Polystylist John Adams @ 70

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Sunday, Feb. 20, join host Phil Kline for an encore presentation celebrating the birthday of one of classical music's most celebrated and performed living composers: John Adams.

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Philip Glass @ 80: A 24-Hour Birthday Celebration

Monday, January 30, 2017

This Sunday, Q2 Music celebrates the 80th birthday of the iconic minimalist composer Philip Glass with an encore 24-hour marathon of his music. 

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