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“Aquatint”, the most ambitious Testbild! project to date, is a conceptual piece coloured by the sea. The music is a dream-like descent into steam fog and black swirls. Layers of cinematic pop and 60’s jazz mix with sea shanties, Mexican trumpets and vibraphones. It is the echoes from a forgotten harbour, where the ropes never stopped creaking and the meteorograph went on ticking.
The release, which is the fifth Testbild! album since 2002, includes 20 songs in 68 minutes, including the recent mp3 single “My brother submariner” / “Garnet brand land”. Written and performed by Stepbrother Ernest, Jana T. Mekka, Nathaniel Mist, Goliath Quadslums, Furian Siber and Dustin Spunkvolt, except “My brother the submariner, written by Matt Jones of The Hepburns.
Link to Aquatint short film by Pontus Lundkvist: http://vimeo.com/2567610
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Two tracks from the forthcoming album by Testbild!. It's entitled Aquatint and will be released by Friendly Noise. Following last year's Une teinte intense, an album light as a mirage, that bridges pop, jazz and exotica in the sun-bleached deserts of North Africa, Aquatint is, instead, an outburst of underwater inspiration.
"My Brother the Submariner" is originally a song by The Hepburns that finds its message explored further by Testbild!. "Garnet Brand Land" is set somewhere over the waves yet under the stars. Possibly near the coast of Mexico, by the sound of it.
Swedish magazine Digfi said: "Who could possibly resist music as exquisite as this?"
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With a voice like Spring, and always dancing. So far, the myths that flourish about Action Biker all agree. But pinning her down has proved difficult. Contradictory accounts associate her with the North and the West respectively, giving rise to strange conjectures. Following sightings of Sarah walking through Hesperian Puisto, she has been connected with the Hesperides, those guardians of a tree of golden apples in a grove at the western border of the Ocean. These were renowned for their sweet singing. Rumoured the daughters of Night, they inherited her influence over creation. According to another theory, they were sisters with Calypso, making the Evening Star their grandfather.
A link can also be traced to a race of Apollo-worshippers in the far north, in short: fans of sun, music, and poetry residing somewhere past the North Wind. Legends resounding with the beat of drums tell us of their questionable ways to happiness, while certain documents, now lost to us, mention much simpler causes for rejoicing (late night kitchen dancing, shopping ingredients for peach pie and so on).
However, the dominant impression left by Action Biker has to do with the artistic refinement of her mind; her intense ability to dream; her gift for hearing music where others would not. The image is one of fearlessness, of unending playfulness.
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The Dreamers are an Anglo/Swedish duo featuring Sarah Nyberg Pergament and Kevin Wright. Sarah has previously recorded as Action Biker and Kevin as Always and Mr Wright (recordings from the last 20 years on labels such as él, Le Grand Magistery and Siesta). Meeting at a Swedish music festival in 2004 the pair began by writing the song “Petit Nuage” in late 2005. Encouraged by this an album began taking shape being recorded mostly in London with Sarah’s vocals being sent from Stockholm and Helsinki. The Dreamers’ influences combine many disparate elements including jazz pop and soundtrack music. Although the music is often melancholic the Dreamers hope to make (to paraphrase Michel Legrand speaking of Tom Jobim) “the sad music that makes the world a better place.”
Influences: Stan Tracey, Caetano Veloso, Colleen, Francoise Hardy, Kryzystof Komeda, Matching Mole, Anna Karina, Bill Evans, Monica Zetterlund, Nara Leao, Bernard Herrmann, Nico…
