jackson d.

Check out the online version here:http://media.www.theconcordian.com/media/storage/paper290/news/2009/03/03/Arts/Art-Matters.09-3657383.shtml


Jackson Darby muddles the line between music and art with his newest project, Verb. Each piece tells a loose narrative through melody, rhythm, and timbre. To produce his electroacoustic experiments, Darby draws on fields recordings, vinyl samples, hip-hop, and turntablism. The titles are deliberately vague: "Play," "Walk," "Stay," and "Sit." By the time I caught up with Darby at the Narratives vernissage, he was about to play a forty-five minute DJ set. Instead, he answered my questions through e-mail.
"Each piece is similar in that they begin in one place and end up somewhere completely different, abandoning the traditional A-B-A structure conventional to tonal music," wrote Darby. "This also contributes to the basic story structure I had in mind while composing, a sort of journey from point A to point B."
When not volunteering for Arts Matters, Darby spins turntables in a band called Valley of the Shadow of Death. When asked what side of the music/art fence his work leans towards, he makes very clear that the pieces from Verb are first and foremost musical compositions.
"I'm pretty lucky that not many sound people think to participate in things like Art Matters (even though I tell them to all the time)," he said, "which leaves the door open for me and my band to take part."
"Having said this, I do consider myself an artist, sound is simply my medium. I don't feel like sound installations are an awkward addition to an art gallery, in fact I wish people would integrate visual arts and music more as I feel there's often a large separation," he continued. - Concordian Magazine