Mainpal Inv.

Mainpal Inv. was an alias used by Danish/Faroese experimental artist Kristian Vester (best known as Goodiepal) circa 1995–2003. He released the bulk of Mainpal Inv's material through his eponymous private imprint, most notably the "Brand Archive" series in 2000-01. This collection of 7" picture discs closely followed Goodiepal's Goodiebag & Demonbag series on V/Vm Test Records. For his latest project, Mainpal "hacked" assorted audio content produced over the years for commercial clients, from Nokia, Carlsberg and Bang & Olufsen to Chupa Chups or Statoil — such as jingles, sound effects and advertisement music — and released cut-up/glitch/dub "remixes" on picture vinyl with corporate logos and slogans; obviously, without any permission or authorization. In response, several companies pressed charges against Vester, including Carlsberg A/S and Nokia; they settled after he agreed to destroy remaining copies. Chupa Chups attempted to sue but couldn't physically locate the artist to serve a subpoena. Instead, the Spanish company targeted a private German website for violation of their trademark, wolf's kompaktkiste, which hosted, among thousands of labels and artists, scans of Mainpal Inv records. Curiously, the brand settled after Wolf Kemker, the website's sole owner, simply added the ® symbol on the page; they didn't even demand the removal of "violating" images. Mainpal Inv. extensively collaborated with the UK/Italian experimental duo Gamers In Exile and their London-based label Unbearable Recordings. In addition to their triple-split 7" single with Japanese Milky-Chu (a.k.a. Ryoma Maeda, younger brother of World's End Girlfriend's Katsuhiko Maeda), Mainpal appeared on the band's debut 2001 Split Your Cerebrum CD album. Gamers In Exile, in turn, remixed one of Goodiepal's popular tracks, "My Robotic Skills Have Failed," featured on multiple albums and compilations. One of the duo members, Valerio, also contributed to the B-side of Hitachi 7" single. A few other collaborators included Toshiyuki Kobayashi, Kristian's "partner in crime" for Chupa Chups 7" single, Pelle Krøgholt (founder of DataMusik project and webmaster of Mainpal Inv's primary homepage), and Cardiff Sinclair from one of the earliest Danish trance projects Beyond Reality. In 2002, Mainpal participated in Raster-Noton's 'Frequencies [Hz]' AV exhibition at Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany. The same year, he also took part in the X + Y = XY quirky mail-art compilation on Spanish label Alku, matched on an "audio blind date" with Beige (a project of German producer Oliver Braun), and produced two remixes for Kim Hiorthøy.