ben owen radio>in

The second release is by Ben Owen, label owner. He uses as source a FM radio transmitter, FM radio and a mixer. He uses an unused bandwidth of which the sound goes through the mixer to the FM transmitter. In the third piece he also uses some tuning adjustments. Radio as the source of music has been done before a lot (from David Tudor to John Duncan to Pedro Bericat), but Owen does a nice job with his conceptual set up. In the first two pieces a high pitched hum hoovers on an occasional low bass hum. Nothing much seems to be happening, but on a microscopic scale a lot is done. The third track is something of an odd ball in this, as it's much louder and sort of breaks with the tranquil character of the first two pieces. But throughout it's quite a nice release.

frans de waard, 2007010