Sternpost - unworld.afterpop

Sternpost
unworld.afterpop
Concentric Circles
USA/Sweden, 2026
LP

The solo project of the Malmö-based librarian Petter Herbertsson, Sternpost crafts intricate art pop in the lineage of Robert Wyatt, Slapp Happy, Prefab Sprout, and Van Dyke Parks. His latest is a subtle concept album weaving together the stories of four different characters in four different places, broken up by interludes of field recordings and spoken word and traversing through the seasons from summer to winter.

Musically, 𝘶𝘯𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘱 synthesizes the more spritely indie pop of Herbertsson’s band Testbild! with the bedsit Canterbury grandeur of his breakthrough Ulrika, crafting an album that unfolds as a slow-rolling series of highlights, the songwriting so sophisticated and forward-moving that it often feels less like a collection of discreet songs with their own verses and choruses than a single complex composition with a steady distribution of “favorite parts."