Photo thanks to Wired.

With respect to S & G fans, this is the real sound of silence.

The world’s first completely silent ringtone has just been created by conceptual artist Jonathon Keats who digitized a famous 1952 piano performance by John Cage entitled 4’33, that you guessed it- doesn’t involve a piano or much anything else for four minutes and thirty three seconds.

You could ask why, but as long as parents are still footing the bill for their kids going to art school, you know why.

But there are still some other questions left unanswered, like who on earth would stay on the other side of the line for nearly five minutes so you can finish listening to the song? And if they did, how are you supposed to when the song is over? Does it come with one of those turn-the-page beeps you hear on kids audio books?

The most pressing Emperors New Clothes related question though is who’s more pretentious, John Cage for his minimalist performance or Jon Keats for digitizing the song and packaging it as the new Mexican Hat Dance?

My vote for goes to Keats- check out this excert:

"My Cage" dispenses with performer and piano and auditorium, providing an experience technically more perfect than Cage's live silence in both production and presentation, a clear improvement over the analog original. A remastering, "My Cage" is also a remix, introducing serendipity into the equation, delivering performances unpredictably, whenever calls come unexpectedly.”

I think he wins the crown for “introducing serendipity” alone.

Anyway, if you want this historical ringtone, you can hear it for free here, as well as here. (That’s where I would have stuck the dead links if I wasn’t terrified it would wreak havoc with Google rankings.)