The third entry in Ben Owen‘s Birds and Water series of recordings. As with Birds and Water, 1 (NTR018), these two sidelong electronic drones reflect Owen’s typically rigorous compositional choices. They display remarkably disparate, rich textures and are extremely immersive, especially when played loud and/or on headphones. Owen once again displays an ability to invite multiple levels of reaction to deceptively complex timbres, ranging from meditative to oppressive.

“The third release of recordings made on residency with The Experimental Television Center in Owego, NY during May 2010. The Birds and Water series is my main body of work created at ETC. The work and title is influenced from the birds that hovered as dusk approaches over the Susquehanna River, which borders the residency building, seen from the third floor windows.

The recordings are both sound and sound and image based pieces using David Jones’ image processing system. ETC expanded operations in 1974 with the first Jones Colorizer, and in 1975 with a set of keyers, a multi-input sync-able sequencer and a bank of oscillators, all designed and constructed by David Jones. Numerous patches and variations of each were recorded in extended durations. Both recordings are presented with edits only to their original duration.