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Review & Track Premiere: Papir, V

PAPIR V

[Click play above to stream the premiere of Papir’s ‘V.I’ from the new album V, out Aug. 18 on Stickman Records and available for preorder here.]

There isn’t a harsh moment on it — not one blastbeat, scream, or malevolent dirge — but Papir‘s V is a work of extremity all the same. The suitably-named fifth album from the instrumentalist Copenhagen trio of guitarist Nicklas Sørensen, drummer Christoffer Brøchmann Christensen and bassist Christian Becher Clausen, its 2CD/2LP run of seven tracks and 94 minutes pushes into a psychedelic wash of such breadth and immersion that there’s no other word to describe it. Its tones are warm air on cold skin, and its rhythms are cool water on a hot day. It is among the longest hugs you will receive this year. More to the point, it is an ultra-liquid, ultra-engaging flow of heavy psychedelia that stretches well beyond the confines of what one might consider manageable but offers a solar system’s worth of worlds to explore in trade.

In terms of basic circumstance, V notably finds the band shifting from El Paraiso Records — which released 2011’s second album, Stundum, 2013’s III and 2014’s IIII (review here), a compilation of III and IIII together in 2014, as well as their Live at Roadburn outing and a special edition 10″, both in 2015 (their self-titled debut came out in 2010 via Red Tape) — to Stickman Records. That removes them from partnership with like-minded Danish countrymen Causa Sui but establishes them as labelmates to forward-thinking outfits such as MotorpsychoElder, and Orango, among others. Papir show themselves to be no less progressive on V, which brims with a sense of universal expansion playing out across its nigh-on-impossible span; numbered individual pieces — “V.I,” “V.II,” V.VI,” and so on — taking on a life of their own, including “V.III,” which is the shortest of the bunch and the only cut included on V to check in under 10 minutes. If you’re wondering, it is 9:07.

Clearly Papir are envisioning a broad listening scenario. That is, you put the platter or the disc on and let yourself get lost in their jazzy progressive krautrocking psychedelia. Maybe you have headphones in to better experience nuances like the underlying acoustic strum beneath the soaring leads of 15-minute centerpiece “V.IV,” or maybe the space-rock thrust of “V.II” is turned up through speakers in order to let Clausen‘s highlight bassline rumble through the floors. Either way you go, Papir‘s skillful blend of proggy elements, post-rock ambience, mega-patient delivery and aesthetic cohesion proves second to none with V, and the sheer scope of the work they’re doing becomes even more staggering when one considers that it doesn’t necessarily sound like it’s just jamming.

papir

While I have no doubt that at least parts of their material are improvised or based around initial improvisations, listening to the emerging dreamscape clarity of “V.V” — arguably the lushest and most gorgeous single piece Papir have produced to-date, with Christensen‘s drums keeping steady motion beneath guitar, synth and bass interplay that is stirring in a manner instrumental output rarely achieves — there’s a consciousness and a direction at work as well. It could be Sørensen leading the way as his guitar meanders and explores open, vast soundscapes, but it’s definitely a spirit to which all three members of Papir contribute, so that it’s less about the work of one of them and the variety of texture, stylistic complexity and the flow — my god, the flow — they’re able to bring to bear when working together with the effectiveness and they chemistry they show here. Much to their collective credit, as they move toward the 25-minute finale “V.II” through the rumbling and ringing “V.VI” (11:03), there isn’t a moment of redundancy to be found. On a release that’s 94 minutes long, one would hardly be able to hold it against them if there were, but each track on offers something distinct from its surroundings while refusing to sacrifice the overarching purpose that seems to drive the band continually farther and farther outward.

And they end up pretty far out, to be sure. One could easily posit that Papir broke through creativity on III and really defined their course and sonic persona in the reaches of IIII, but even if that’s so, V surpasses both in its scope and execution. Holding to an organic vibe even as “V.VII” drifts along a slow path of effects wash and drone in its early going, this may not be the moment at which Papir make their first declaration of who they are as a band — nor should it be; this is their fifth LP — but it is a moment that finds them blowing that prior definition away like dandelion seeds with such a willful expansion as to be staggering when taken in its entirety. Yes, it is long, but even the length seems to serve a mission more about the effect produced by the material than the length itself — not just that Papir take that time, but what they’re able to accomplish with it.

Circa 20 minutes in, “V.VII” finds Christensen picking up momentum on the drums, and there’s a build of tension there, but if you think Papir are headed for some blowout crescendo, you’ve missed the point. A few cymbal crashes behind the steadily-exploratory guitar and bass serve as an exciting finish that stays true to the high level of class the three-piece have shown throughout V, and emphasizes once more the gracefulness they bring to this massive, encompassing fuller-than-full-length. That may be the theme that most draws the individual tracks together, but when taken as a single entirety, there’s no turn so drastic as to necessarily interrupt the movement of the proceedings overall. Still, no doubt V will simply prove too much for some, and so despite its poise and gentleness and readiness to converse with its audience rather than repel, one continues to think of it as a work of extremity. It just so happens that that extremity finds Papir stepping out from behind their influences to make themselves leaders in heavy psychedelia and in so doing takes the form of one of 2017’s best and most satisfying listening experiences.

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One Response to “Review & Track Premiere: Papir, V

  1. Daniel M says:

    Super excited for the whole thing, but especially V.V with that description. I can’t wait!

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