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Testbild! Biography

testbild
  • Formed in: Sweden
  • Years Active: 2000s
  • Genre: Rock & Alternative

Sweden's Testbild does its best to keep a bit secret about its doings, but the band/project/collaboration, first emerging to the public eye with an appearance on 2000s Grace label compilation Amazing Grace Sampler, has at its core Petter Herbertsson, from (or at least based) in Malmö. Working later with Mattias Nihlen, who like Herbertsson plays a slew of different instruments as well as sings, the band has created a number of all-over-the-place recordings that interpolate '60s and indie pop into many different settings: some techno here, some odd glitch work there, some gentle folk everywhere, and quite a bit of fragmentation and mysteriousness. After further compilation appearances on a number of different labels in 2001, the band made its full debut in 2002 on the Radio Khartoum label with The Double Life of Testbild, indulging a fascination in the liner notes with early computers like ENIAC while creating a warm if sometimes highly busy set of songs. A self-titled EP then emerged the following year on the Rocket Science Society label, while the band appeared on a further compilation on the Friendly Noise label, Friendly People Making Noise. This led to a full partnership with said label, and in 2004 the group's second album was the result, The Inexplicable Feeling of September. ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi

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