Reviving Voices: A Sound Installation Celebrates Gay Men’s Choruses Amid the AIDS Crisis

On a bright morning in Lower Manhattan, the sound of applause filled the air—not from a live audience, but from decades-old recordings.

This applause forms part of “No Time at All,” an evocative sound installation by Matthew Leifheit, running through June 30 at the New York City AIDS Memorial in the West Village.

Compiled from 53 VHS tapes, the installation features an unbroken blend of music performed by gay men’s choruses between 1985 and 1995, complete with the characteristic distortions of aging magnetic tape.

The 65-minute audio piece is followed by a 10-minute silence, a deliberate pause that resonates as deeply as the rich baritone voices. Seven distinct “recitals,” as Leifheit calls them, play daily through June from speakers embedded within the memorial’s 18-foot white steel canopy.

Leifheit, 37, explained that he intentionally selected music from concerts held during the bleakest early years of the AIDS crisis—before the widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy in the U.S. During that period, many chorus members used music to process their experiences and losses.

The project’s title reflects both the relentless passage of time for those who endured countless funerals and the swift toll AIDS took on many whose voices now echo anonymously through the memorial.

Through this installation, Leifheit aims to artistically portray the profound absence left by the epidemic while honoring chorus members who survived and continue to thrive.