Echo Image is a Norwegian synthpop band from Fredrikstad. The band started in the summer of 1997 when Pål Magnus Rybom and Jon-Ivar Berg started experimenting with electronic music. That summer the two of them recorded a demo. Berg left the group after they failed attract the attention of record labels and went to focus on his music project Biozide. Later that year Fredrik Hansen joined and Echo Image was officially formed with Trine Bilet joining towards the end of the year providing backing vocals, keyboards, and synthesizers.
In December 1998, Echo Image recorded the Walkout EP, which was sold locally through a label called Kvarts Musikk. Their musical style didn't really suit Kvarts, whose catalog consisted of punk, prog, and lo-fi music; so in 2000 they signed to US synthpop label A Different Drum with the German label Bloodline releasing their music in Europe. Around this time Lars Kristian Holt joined as live guitarist and became a full-time member in July 2001.
The 2000 single Need to Be Proud was mixed by Apoptygma Berzerk frontman Stephan Groth. Compuphonic was released in 2001 and peaked at #28 on the CMJ RPM Charts in the U.S.