Papir: III

2023 10 year anniversary reissue

Papir is an instrumental trio from Copenhagen, Denmark. They’ve created their own unique type of semi-improvised psychedelic rock by mixing together new and old, heavyness and atmosphere, freedom and power. By now they have become masters of their craft, and this, their third album, earns them a spot in the absolute elite of the current European psychedelic rock scene. Everyone who has been lucky enough to catch the band live know what an reverence-inducing experience their energitic, adventurous explorations can be. Papir are the perfect antidote to the fashionable trends that continues to dominate the present, but they don’t go beyond the limited to scope of the dominating indie-rock by merely reaching back to the bygone golden era of psychedelic rock and electric jazz like so many others do – they transcend it. Their music sounds vital and fresh. When Mojo writer Kieron Tyler visited Denmark’s renowned SPOT Festival in the summer of 2012 he was blown away by Papir’s performance as an experience that clearly stood out compared to the rest of the bill (that included all of Scnadinavias leading acts): It takes a lot to stand out at SPOT…but Copenhagen’s Papir are arresting. Their guitar, bass and drums mesh powerfully in an intense, jazz-inflected instrumental rock. Voyaging through post-rock Tortoise terrain, it nods towards Hawkwind’s freak outs and employs liberal dollops of wah-wah pedal. The pieces – not songs – twist and turn like Dark Star Grateful Dead. From these jumping off points, Papir scurry off on their own path. These guys are certainly on their own path and Papir III is their most fully realized album to date, it encompasses everything the band represents in a single piece of heavy vinyl – from explosive, guitar-solo driven peaks through motoric krautrock grooves to peaceful and atmospheric soundscapes. Like its predecessor the album was recorded during a single intense week in a small house in the Danish countryside, masterfully engineered and produced by Jonas Munk (Causa Sui), capturing the band in the midst of their creative prime.