Career
EBN-OZN, pronounced EEBEN-OHZEN formed in 1981 in New York when Rosen met Liben through record producer Jay Aaron Podolnick (who later founded Villamuse Film Studios in Austin, Texas), a friend of Ozn's then Australian fashion-model girlfriend. Soon after meeting they started spending time together in clubs listening to different types of dance music. Ozn was a Broadway actor/singer in the original casts of Shenandoah and Marlowe. Ebn was owner and founder of New York's Sundragon Recording Studios, which he created at the age of 14. In 1983 they were signed by the London arm of Arista-Ariola and Elektra Records in New York, who released their only LP, Feeling Cavalier, and singles "AEIOU, Sometimes Y" and "Bag Lady (I Wonder)". The album featured a wide and hard-to-categorize range of musical styles, and a sense of humor throughout; a notable musical guest was Latin jazz/mambo legend Tito Puente.
"AEIOU" became an international MTV and dance club hit as well as receiving significant black radio play. "AEIOU" remains a modern rock radio and 1980s music staple. AllMusic writes that the song "combines intelligence, melody, and weirdness in just the right doses. Accompanied by a video that featured the multi-braided Rosen delivering a stream-of-consciousness rap about 'this incredible Swedish girl,' and with a more serious subtext about communication, it became a bizarre but deserved hit."
Recorded in 1981, "AEIOU" has the distinction of being the first single ever recorded entirely on a computer in the United States (a Fairlight CMI) and the subsequent album "Feeling Cavalier", the first album. It was truly a testament to the ahead-of-their-time creativity of the duo as well as EBN's musical genius as a programmer.
The second single was the uncharacteristically earnest dance-rock track "Bag Lady", the video for which starred Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress Imogene Coca. The single became a dance club hit and a minor radio hit in the US, while gaining hit status in Canada and Europe.
"AEIOU, Sometimes Y" was the focus of a Beavis and Butt-head episode in the 1990s, and has been released on numerous "Best of the '80s" compilation albums (including Warner Brothers' Richard Blade's 80s Hits). Feeling Cavalier was released on CD on October 17, 2006, by Wounded Bird Records.
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