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Biography
COI|date=March 2012Primary sources|date=August 2007Infobox musical artist|name = Ebn-Ozn|image = Ebn Ozn 23.jpg|thumb|200px|caption = Liben and Rosen of Ebn-Ozn|image_size =|background = group_or_band|origin = New York City , New York , United States |genre = Dance , New Wave music|New wave , synthpop , hip hop , pop rock |years_active = 1982-1985|label = Elektra Records Arista Records|Arista - Ariola Records|Ariola Wounded Bird Records |associated_acts =|Also Known As =|website =|current_members = Ned "EBN" Liben Robert Ozn|Robert "OZN" Rosen Ebn-Ozn was a 1980s music duo composed of Ned "EBN" Liben ( synthesizer ) and Robert Ozn|Robert "OZN" Rosen ( Organ (music)|organ , vocals). The duo is best known for the 1983 hit single , "AEIOU, Sometimes Y."
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.Allmusic|class=artist|id=p17230/biography|pure_url=yes Ozn was a Broadway actor/singer in the original casts of Shenandoah (musical)|Shenandoah and Marlowe (musical)|Marlowe . Ebn was owner and founder of New York's Sundragon Recording Studios, which he created at the age of 14.Citation needed|date=November 2007 In 1983 they were signed by the London arm of Arista-Ariola and Elektra Records in New York, who released their only Gramophone record|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 ponytailed 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."Allmusic|class=album|id=r36299|pure_url=yes
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 album s (including Warner Brothers' ''Richard Blade's 80s Hits ). Feeling Cavalier was released on CD on October 17, 2006, by Wounded Bird Records .
Breakup and subsequent activities
The duo went their separate ways in 1985. Ebn went on to work with Scritti Politti and producers including Phil Ramone and Arif Mardin . Ozn formed dance music act Dada Nada , and his own label, One Voice Records. Dada Nada was signed to Polydor/London and distributed independently in North America by Ozn, who proved himself an astute businessman, going head-to-head with the major labels and gaining two Top 5 Billboard club hits: "Haunted House" (co-written and produced with Bob Greenberg, and mixed by Mike "Hitman" Wilson and Badboy Bill) and "Deep Love," (co-written with Steve Wight, and mixed by Frankie Knuckles & David Morales and Bad Boy Bill ).
Ned "Ebn" Liben died in 1998 of a myocardial infarction|heart attack in Manhattan, New York, and is survived by his widow Sallie Moore Liben and son Max.
Ozn changed his name to Robert Ozn and went on to become a script analyst, screenwriter and producer. He worked first for free for Oliver Stone and Janet Yang's Ixtlan Films, trading his time in exchange for learning the development and production end of the movie business. He went on to become a paid first-call reader for A-list material for Stone. He was then hired at Miramax, as reader for Pulp Fiction (film)|Pulp Fiction under Oscar-winning producer Richard Gladstein and as contract development exec for much of their European fare and some of horror division Dimension Films' material. He also served as script analyst at Creative Arts Agency (CAA) on projects for Sydney Pollack , Louis Malle , and James Cameron 's Lightstorm Entertainment.
Ozn partnered with Ted Danson (friends from their Broadway days) as executive producers to option Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens , playwright Bill Russell's West End theatre|West End London AIDS drama, http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsR/russell-bill.htm for Anasazi/Paramount Television. Danson and Ozn attached their friends who agreed to work for scale if Paramount could secure a commercial-free broadcast, including Michael Douglas , Richard Gere , Patrick Stewart , Whoopi Goldberg , Jason Priestley and Elizabeth Taylor as well as Danson. However, as of 2007 it remains unproduced; Ozn retains the option.
Ozn and writer/producer Colin Greene sold Storm Warning , a $100 million-plus film, to Paramount for producer Mario Kassar , making the front page of the Hollywood Reporter .Citation needed|date=November 2007 That article served as a blessing and a curse. Ozn had just been hired as an executive at Warner Brothers' now-defunct animation division, due to his unusual combination of experience in musical theatre, the record business and the film industry. Ozn was to supervise the development of the script and soundtrack along with Pete Townshend for The Iron Man (later produced without music as The Iron Giant ). The Hollywood Reporter article caused a problem with Warner's personnel department: Ozn was informed he could not take his executive position because he'd sold material to the competition.interview "Robert Ozn" American House Music - The New York Years" BBC
In 2003, Ozn's and Greene's ''God's Witness'', long on many of the industry's "favorite un-sold spec scripts" lists, was finally made as I Witness , starring Jeff Daniels , James Spader and Portia de Rossi . Universal released the film in the U.S. and Canada in 2007 and HBO released it internationally.
Ozn left the industry in 2003 to raise his family and returned in 2008, co-producing a United Kingdom|UK documentary about the British aristocrat and war hero Micky Burn . He wrote the science fiction disaster film, ''Earth's Final Hour for Cinetel/Sy Fy Channel. Now divorced, he lives in Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro .
References
Reflist
External links
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Category:American New Wave musical groups Category:Electronic music groups from New York Category:Musical duos
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