News
Testbild! are presently working on the following projects:
1. "BED STILT", an album which is supposed to be part three of the ENIAC/UNIVAC saga.
2. music to forthcoming films of Pontus Lundkvist and Henrik Möller.
3. yet another nameless album and case studies for a project concerning a mysterious asylum.
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Friendly Noise will release our new album Aquatint in September 2008.
The Lolita Wagner Case is once again delayed. We have no news for the moment.
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This page will be updated regularly. Thank You for Your interest!
17 June 2008: A rare interview (in English!) can be found here.
Thank you Jeff Boller, of The Simple Carnival!
29 November 2007: Now for some excellent reading:
Michael Vitrano is a nice fellow who wrote a splendid review of our last record "Imagine a House". Now he's started a brand new music blog by the name of Home On The Fringe.
Ned Ragett wrote a fine review of Une Teinte Intense for Allmusic.
...and don't forget the interview in NSD (Swedish only)!
25 October 2007: Brand new interview here (Swedish).
15 September 2007: Releaseparty for the brand new full length CD "Une Teine Intense", a thematic album about Isabelle Eberhardt.
22/9 2007, 09.00 PM
På Besök, Nobelvägen 73
Malmö, Sweden
Live: Band In Box
WELCOME!
28 June 2007: Friendly Noise just released two new Testbild! songs on their mp3 label. These songs are exclusive, and will not be released in any other form.
Listen here!
14 May 2007: The new Testbild! album will be called "Une Teinte Intense", and will be released by Friendly Noise i the beginning of September this year. It's yet another thematical album, this time about Isabelle Eberhardt, one of the true heroes of this world.
02 February 2007: A brand new Testbild! interview here (Swedish).
10 January 2007: Check out our friend Viktor Sjöberg's live remix of a previously unreleased Testbild! tune, Göteborg, November 2006!
09 November 2006: Now, how about this fine review!
Testbild!
Imagine A House
Friendly Noise
Beginning with a gentle hum of an organ, followed by the relaxed picking of an acoustic guitar, we slowly emerge into the world of Testbild!. You may ask, “Well what is the world of Testbild!?” It’s quite simple really; nary a cloud in the sky, we, the listeners, sit by a Swedish lake watching the gulls dip in and out of the water, a weeping willow moves briskly with the wind, the music of Virginia Astley emanates through the air. The four members of Testbild! float by on a handmade raft, the current taking them downstream towards a windmill cabin surrounded by fog. Although the music of Testbild! is at once smooth and relaxing, there is a noticeable mystique, an air of intrigue, that pulls the listener in further. One only needs to view the short film accompanying the CD to get some idea of what Testbild! believe their world to be: strangely poignant moments played out by a party of grotesques.
Sunny melodies are tempered by obtuse and often surreal lyrics, as in “Inside Raindrops”: “Inside raindrops/ lilac crystals/ subatomic salt/ floating inside raindrops”—which reminds me of what some poets refer to as “automatic writing”, where the writer is compelled to place words down in front of one another without trying to make sense of any of it. Testbild! has more in common with surrealist artists of the past than any present-day movements, and yet their music is somehow out of time, existing in a discordant world on its own, distant yet reachable. Coupled with familiar sounding instruments and field recordings that remind you that the music is still definitely rooted in our world, there are intangible electronic doodling reminiscent of Broadcast, where otherworldly themes creep in to keep you disoriented. On “A Lullaby In Vain”, there persists a dark foreboding presence carrying you along with the “lullaby”, keeping you warm yet not entirely at ease. And this is why I find this record so special for the autumn season; there are tranquil moments and comfortable colors, but lurking around the corner is the beginning of winter, ready to spring up at any moment.
The epic album closer, “Where Did This Begin?”, which also serves as the soundtrack to the short film of the same name, encompasses a few different beginnings that never really end. We drift into the song without any direction, trying to anticipate where we’ll be heading to next, and just at that moment, everything kicks in and shakes us out of our trance. This, in effect, is what Testbild! sets out to do; create a house of mirrors for us to walk around in and place faint corridors of light that catch our eye and lead us further into the labyrinth.
-Michael Vitrano
11/01/06
(From Delusions of Adequacy)
20 October 2006: Saturday, th 4th of November 2006:
Live performances by
Testbild! Vs. Viktor Sjöberg
Differnet
Most Valuable Players
DJ set by Testbild!
Where: Underjorden, Brahegatan 11, Göteborg, Sweden
When: 8.00 pm
Entrance: 60 scr