TESTBILD!  is the brainchild of one Petter Herbertsson of Malmö, Sweden, a man who started with a manifesto. Imagined histories, pop experiments and experimental pop. And a name which pays tribute to the Young Marble Giants ("testbild" is Swedish for "testcard"). Herbertsson has since been joined in his surreal pop journey by fellow travelers Mattias Nihlen (starting with The Inexplicable Feeling of September and the soon to be released Lolita Wagner Case) and more recently by Douglas Holmquist (Dr Higgins) and Pontus Lundkvist. The quartet are currently working on an album of songs by the fictitious 60s act, Bed Stilt.
 
 

 

The Double Life of Testbild!
khz102 - CD $12 - buy
For his debut album, Malmö based Testbild! conjures up an expressionist fiction of Doppelgängers, deep sea exploration and space travel. The record traces the meteoric careers of inventors/pioneers ENIAC and UNIVAC, whose stories take root in a soundscape where Testbild!'s experiments in noise merge with gorgeous multi-layered melodies. One might speculate that Testbild! spent his childhood in the company of Jules Verne, Kraftwerk, Brian Wilson and Claude Debussy. Unidentifiable electronic noises meet with the gurgling of coffee pots, cascades of rain, vibraphone, glockenspiel, accordion, clicking guitars, vintage synths and Rhodes galore. The resulting album may remind you of Young Marble Giants, Bertrand Burgalat, Louis Philippe, Broadcast, Tuxedomoon, or even This Heat at points, but for us, The Double Life of TESTBILD! is as much a plunge into a parallel universe as the stuff in RK's "official" imaginary soundtrack series, 18fps.

The album is packaged in an extended digipack which includes biographical notes on protagonists ENIAC and UNIVAC.
 

01. Comet's Tail
02. ENIAC vs. UNIVAC video
03. Molloy in Orbit full.mp3 | realaudio
04. From Forgotten Power Station on the Moon
05. Starlit Collapse
06. Willowpond Park full.mp3 | realaudio
 07. Chrome-Packed Shell
08. Dissembled Hero
09. New York
10. Lolita Wagner
11. Iron Lung vs. Aqualung
 
  v/a: Return of Everson K (18fps #6)
mhz305 - 7" $3.50 - buy
A return to the thriller-esque mode of 18fps' debut The Flight of Everson K. Swedish artist Testbild! turns in a surrealist detective stomper in the form of "His Shadows are Green / His Shadows are Blue" which probably owes almost as much to band leader Petter Herbertsson's obsession with writer Paul Auster as to postpunk and krautrock experimentation. A jagged, melodic tour-de-force. Flipside features "Special Delivery Agent Q-39," the recording which got Tasmanian multi-instrumentalist Anthony Rochester signed to the label: twang guitar and stabbing flute spy instrumental, standard procedure. Except that Rochester kicks the genre sideways with a 5/4 time signature and an uncharacteristically wistful air... Both tracks exclusive. 

01. Testbild!: His Shadows are Green / His Shadows are Blue
02. Anthony Rochester: Special Delivery Agent Q-39

 

  TESTBILD!: Une teinte intense
Friendly Noise (Sweden)
fyn52 - CD $13 - buy

A very pleasant left turn finds the Testbild! collective not in outer space or ocean depths, but in the Sahara circa 1900. Une teinte intense is a tribute to explorer Isabelle Eberhardt. Excerpts from her travel diaries float in a dreamy sound environment of Bedouin drums, echoing muezzin calls, and warm winds blowing in the distance, while pop melodies flow like spring water in the irrigation canals. Light as a mirage, this album bridges pop, jazz and exotica in the sun-bleached deserts of North Africa.
 
01. Je Suis Seul, Et Je Reve
02. Labyrinthine
03. Maghreb
04. La Tombée De La Nuit
05. The Moorish Café
06. Evening Star



07. Ain-Sefra
08. Une Grand Calice Pale
09. Figuig
10. The Dying Mirage
11. L'Errante
12. Le Vent Du Desert Tarit Mes Yeux Humides
 

  TESTBILD!: Imagine a House
Friendly Noise (Sweden)
fyn33 - CD $13 - buy
Utterly lovely new album from Testbild!, now a quartet, with Petter and Mattias joined by Douglas Holmquist (Dr Higgins, Rodriguez) and film maker Pontus Lundkvist. Lacking most of the jagged postpunk edges of the second album or their recent 7" split with Anthony Rochester, the new Testbild! make good with gentle melodies and layers and layers of tasty keyboard, metallophone, lullaby vocals and atmospherics recorded in that house--you know, the one at the end of the street that you were forbidden to play in (but did, nevertheless). The band purport to be influenced by acid folk and Canterbury pop songs, but I think it's just sweet, moody and really good. Tasty artwork too, plus a 14 minute film* by Pontus, in a digipak with lyric book.

*The RK mac had trouble playing the .avi file till I downloaded the free VLC Media Player. The film is pretty freaky, by the way—definitely more Eraserhead than Jacques Tati—and not exactly my cuppa.
 
01. Inside Raindrops
02. Caryatides
03. Bas Jan Ader
04. Inspoor
05. Imagine A House
06. Sodaine
07. Isthmus
08. Shirley Dreams
09. Phanopoeia
10. Suddenly Aching
11. Ipsifendus
12. Inmoor
13. A Lullaby In Vain
14. Ryska valsen
15. The Attic
16. Where Did This Begin
 

  TESTBILD!: The Inexplicable Feeling of September
Friendly Noise (Sweden)
fyn22 - CD $12 - buy
RK artist Testbild! returns, this time by way of friendly label Friendly Noise (it was one of the label's bosses who originally referred Testbild! to RK back before FN was up and running). Another solid dollop of lilting pop melodies, jagged postpunk bits, and beautiful autumn melancholia. There's a new emphasis on choral arrangements this time around, and the album has an earthy feel as well. Very atmospheric at points...you'll drift, and just might experience some inexplicable feelings.
 
01. Another Day
02. Tangled Humidity
03. Rain And Air full.mp3 | realaudio
04. Clouds in Transit
05. Little Crystals
06. A Secret Note
07. You Don't Have to Go
08. Faded by Sun		 09. The Inexplicable Feeling of September
10. Undertow
11. Stettinergränd
12. Meerschaum
13. Sarkofag
14. Clandestine Clam full.mp3 | realaudio
15. Sparks From Extinct Steelworks
 

  v/a: The Soft Rains of Delta Cephei (18fps #5)
khz401 - CD $7 - buy
Equipped with the latest analog technology, Radio Khartoum breaks free of the Earth's gravitational pull and sets out in search of The Soft Rains of Delta Cephei. Leading the charge are Spain's Souvenir with a chilly bossa that heads from the sea to the Milky Way. Ex-Cha Cha Cha alum Spacehonky takes us on an electronic journey through zero gravity to a close orbit around one of Jupiter's moons. France's Hitoribocchi returns from The Stations of Abandoned Days with a decidedly 2001 classical groove for heavy spacecraft in deep space. Japan's 800 Cherries touch down on seemingly familiar solid ground with a laid back icy pop song - but it's hard to be certain if they're really on Earth or not.  Instant Life (Sweden) are on Earth, to be sure, but their retro-futuristic thriller theme forms a wrinkle in time. Finnish RK stalwarts Cessna team up with analog synth maestros Nu Science for a triumphant finale, a voyager theme, destination unknown, but blissful... Umbrella not included. All tracks exclusive.
Further details? See the press release.
 
01. Souvenir: Aux étoiles
02. Spacehonky: Europa's Mass
03. Hitoribocch:i Je n'ai pas peur des S.F.antomes
04. 800 Cherries: Boo the Blackberry 2001 full.mp3 | realaudio
 05. Instant Life: West Germany, 1974
06. Cessna vs Nu Science: Maatamo
07. (unlisted track) Testbild!: Fake Firmament
 
 

The Double Life of Testbild!
uhf102 - Poster $3 - buy
Design: Bügelfrei
Dimensions: 18.5" x 18" (approx. 47 x 46 cm)
2 colors, offset printed on white, acid-free stock

Although no one ever complained, we were never completely happy with the color saturation on these posters. Not quite as dense or even as it should have been. Hence the low price. Tape one up in the office to bug your co-workers, or bring it to your optometrist.

Ships in tube. For a larger view, click here.