Freiband is the digital-electronic ‘remix’ project of Frans de Waard (of Bequeen and Kapotte Muziek fame). Boca Raton is an unknown project to me. Presented here is a pair of live recordings from a performance as part of the Earational 2004 festival for electronic music and audio art. It might as well have been a studio-recording since the production quality is superb.
I knew Freiband through the ‘Martin – Seven [new] aspects’ 3”cd ep which I gave a very positive review earlier.
The eleven tracks presented by Freiband are quite dark and oppressive. Collages of ongoing micro-sounds that brood dynamically into other shapes of sound. De Waard himself describes Freiband as a pop-project, since it is music made of popping sounds. The ‘tracks’ flow into each other perfectly, nervously trembling, clicking and evoking images of dense piles of microscopic electronic bits and pieces. The manipulations are quite abstract and devoid of melody; no echo’s of nature or recognisable ambient influences are present. It’s a project that makes me listen in full astonishment over what can be achieved in production/ reworking of sound. Highly mature and highly recommended.
Boca Raton is Martijn Tellinga and is a kind of reflection on ‘the everyday soundtrack that surrounds us’, according to the additional info. Because of the absence of build-up tension, rhythms, harmony and melody it all sounds quite random and accidental, indeed as the everyday sounds that surround us. However, this is not an environmental record. The everyday sounds are manipulated and rearranged to a level beyond recognition. Boca Raton is a good partner for a split with Freiband, since the material sounds intriguing, mature and thoroughly deformed. Playing ‘Product’ is like travelling in a mirror-world of staged sonic reflection, as abstract as it is enjoyable. Only for autistic sound fetishists though.
