e/i Magazine (US)

Enzo / Further is a work in two parts. Enzo comprises 10 shorter pieces, succeeded by Further, a single long piece lasting roughly 16 minutes. Hums and vibrations cohere into a riddle of electrical static and occasional, sudden movement. The impression is of marshalled electro-acoustic improvisation. There's something concentratedly intent upon the high pitches and scuffles, as though the listener were eavesdropping upon an electronic entity busily building its nest. A number of field recordings become recognisable: the backbone of Enzo 6 is made up of the edited bounce of a table tennis ball, while the 31 second Enzo 9 meld sticky tape and disquieting vocal sounds. The familiarity of these sounds tempts the listener to view the other noises as codes to be unravelled.

Taking this approach further, each part of Enzo may be experienced like the sort of visual conundrum which offers close-up views of an object without revealing its real nature. Simultaneously, Jasper Johns' sage advice to 'avoid the idea of a puzzle which can be solved' echoes in the mind. These associations are later substantiated by locating an online interview in which Martijn Tellinga, aka Boca Raton, observes that "Enzo/Further is a jigsaw-puzzle really in which all loose parts are introduced in the first, rather short, 11 tracks, to make up one, more slowly developing longer piece 'Further' which includes all these elements reworked once more." This approach provides attractive material for contemplation and offers up the prospect of a Borges-like precision.

The inclusion of field recordings in the final piece - including a lengthy stretch of traffic noise recorded in Morocco - prevents the recursive qualities indicated here, from resulting in a drily academic piece. Further, in particular, sketches out an attractive balance between the lived, the meditative and the electronic. (Colin Buttimer)



Igloo (US)

The busy Martijn Tellinga took nearly an annum to develop the latest release for Spekk. Built into two tracks, the first, "Enzo" is made up of ten parts, where he is clearly scaling tonal values by stretching simplistic movements and other tiny motors. The frequencies, from low and vibrating to those high-pitched swoops that scale the air, are the base for what's going on here. Ringing that stalks, glassy percussive fragments that enchant with swelling profundity and a way left-of-center awkwardness make this a formidable listen. Though, one listens to hear the incredible subtleties, the contained flies, and the ghostly rattling of shaken and stirred jars. A ping-pong match delights as if it is being warped with a light saber. Other field recordings find their way in and out of "Enzo" as it is something of a sutured collage of found sound. Further contorts and expands with drone, sine waves and abstract percussion. Something of a soundtrack lullaby for baby spiders and latent Miss Pac Man fanatics this curious piece is simultaneously alert and opaque. (TJ Norris)



Vital Weekly (NETHERLANDS)

After a 7", a couple of CDR releases and two split releases (one with Richard Chartier in the 'Kapotte Muziek by...' series and one with Freiband), here is at last the first full length release by Boca Raton, aka Martijn Tellinga, who is otherwise known as the chief of Stichting Mixer. Boca Raton is one of those guys who see running down the street with their minidisc and microphones, taping the environment, bringing it home and transferring the recordings through computer means. Building his own patches in Max/msp, Boca Raton's music has quickly progressed from a rather free form electro-acoustic hotch potch into a much more tighter, more structured form. 'Enzo' is the first piece here, and it is divided into ten smaller sections. Dwelling heavily on structural compositional forms set out by the early musique concrete composers such as Schaeffer and Henry, this work can be seen as homage to them, albeit with new means. Melody and harmony play no role, but the shape of the sounds do, aswell as volume. It would be too easy to slap Boca Raton down as one of the many followers of microsound, but it doesn't entirely justify his music. Boca Raton doesn't play 'ambient glitch' but musique concrete in it's very best form. 'Further', as I understand it, uses the same elements as 'Enzo', but now as one piece. The element of unprocessed field recordings is stronger here and it sounds even more coherent. More ambient and drone related, 'Further' is a strong contrasting piece to 'Enzo'. Great debut! (FdW)



Loop (CHILE)

Martijn Tellinga proposes environmental sound with minimum elements: digital processing, electroacoustic and field recordings. He started developing a special interest on sound as self-taught that later professionalizes it studying Sonology at the The Hague Royal Conservatory, The Netherlands. This is his first entitled solo project made up of 11 tracks - of almost 35 minutes long - and 10 of them are small cuts called 'Enzo' that were the base for 'Further' which is a more longer piece with field recordings taken in a trip that Tellinga did to Morocco, in which the synthetic sounds are blended with these recordings, sometimes processed [voices] others without any intervention. This disc goes in the vein of Frans de Waard solo projects as Kapote Muziek, in fact, Tellinga worked alongwith Richard Chartier for a series with that name. On the Porto based Crónica Electrónica label 'Product' series he did a split with Freiband and recently in this imprint a Boca Raton track was included in the latest compilation 'Essays On Radio: Dog I Have 2 Minutes Of Your Time' [CD/DVD]. (Guillermo Escudero)



Plop webzine (JAPAN)

Here comes the next ambitious publication from Spekk imprint, initiated by John Hudak's beautiful long piece that might work as a turning point for the New York-based artist. Martijn Tellinga behind the alias Boca Raton is an artist who has made the most interesting progress in the electro-acoustic field in the past few years. Well-known as the director of Mixer label in Amsterdam, he had organized numerous events before, and currently continues doing live performances frequently. In addition, having connections with visual art scenes in Europe, he dedicates sound to film. He is going to be one of the most important figures in the Netherlands' experimental music scene, which lost Staalplaat last year.

To trace Martijn Tellinga's discography, besides one CDR as a half of Zona Fumatori, his debut release under the name of Boca Raton was the 7" vinyl disc entitled "Bratra" in a limited edition of 200 copies from Mixer. Within a relatively short period of time, two CDR albums - "Scuba" from Boxmedia in Chicago and "Mansdoof" from a Greek label Absurd - followed. Also it should be mentioned that he produced a compilation CD that has exclusive tracks by almost all the Mixer artists including himself for the Berlin-based magazine Phosphor. Even though the numbers of copies are small or 'strictly limited', his discography had steadily progressed. They seem to have gained much attention. In fact this year Boca Raton got much busier than before. Two split releases have appeared at record shops already. He shared with Richard Chartier the thirteenth seat of the Korm Plastics' series "Kapotte Muziek by..." and Portuguese label Crónica invited him with Frans de Waard to participate in their split series named "Product". However, this installment "Enzo/Further" is his first solo album released on the CD format and also his first opportunity to introduce Boca Raton to many of the Japanese listeners.

Unlike what is called musique concrete that usually has relatively long durations, the first part "Enzo" of this album that Tellinga calls "a jigsaw puzzle" consists of ten short tracks most of which are under three minutes, including one that lasts only twenty-second, the shortest piece here. After hopping over all these small islands, we could reach the sixteen-minute-long piece "Further" that is rebuilt with all the "Enzo" pieces. Upon first listening, while this unique arrangement and application of generated sounds, which expands his work to outside the edges of so-called musique concrete might remind the listeners a kind of caprice of the musician, they were obviously led by the decisions of a composer, even if he explains it differently. Actually this album is the furthermost from the value called abstract in what he has ever released. "Enzo/Further" represents curious but coherent result as a sublimation of experiments he has carried out along his previous releases. What we get here let us completely understand why he calls this "the first album by Boca Raton".

Lately, Tellinga is working on a sound installation at STEIM and has also started to work as a programmer at a music-specialist radio station in Netherlands, at which he is planning to introduce Japanese contemporary electro-acoustic music in the near future. This Amsterdam-resident who was born in 1974 belongs to the younger generation of Netherlands' experimental music scene, which has produced artists who stay active for long periods. It is often said that an artist's in his/her thirties is at his/her most productive. This certainly applies for Martijn Tellinga. (Hideho Takemasa)