Burma Road: monument to fallen empires
Music and video performance by Bill Jones
iPhone videography by Daryl Wein
Bill Jones releases his third solo “album” of music/video performances titled Burma Road after the infamous war-torn passageway that runs from Burma (Myanmar) to China.
Fourteen years ago, Jones, a visual artist and conceptual photographer, embarked on a collaboration with composer, producer and mutantrumpeter Ben Neill. In 2012, Jones started working solo, producing the music and video for his VJ performances and music/video recordings.
Each music/video track employs a single 20-second loop of video that was shot for Burma Road by noted director Daryl Wein (Sex Positive (2008), Breaking Upwards (2009), Lola Versus (2012), Food (in pre-production)) on his iPhone while traveling in Myanmar in early 2014. Jones then stretched each of the 6 short loops into 5-minute music/video performances using the VJ (video jock) software modul8. Jones records both video and sound on two linked computers, producing the sound (Logic Pro X) and video (modul8) simultaneously. Each music/video track is recorded in one take with Jones manipulating the moving image and “scratching” the recorded sound on the video loop with a midi-keyboard.
The “album” of six extended music videos is available exclusively on the streaming media sites Vimeo and YouTube.
“The performance work I did for many years with Ben Neill was best when experienced in the context of the music scene, in clubs and theaters,” says Jones. “We performed our work in a number of gallery and museum shows, but it was really made for music venues. I saw myself as a visual artist having a one night show. The kind of hybrid, fusion work I’m doing now fits best online, where it is most accessible. I want to make work that is available to everyone.”
Burma Road on Vimeo
Burma Road on YouTube
More about Bill Jones on Wikipedia
Artist's website: http://bill-jones.com
Daryl Wein on Imdb
