STUNDUM

Music without a harness

I´ve lived with this record for quite some time now, and there is no denying the fact, that these musicians must´ve had a picture of me hanging on the wall, when they recorded this. I mean, it´s psychedelic like a scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with booming colours and the cacti to go with it - it´s Krautrock, a type of music that makes my hair stand on end and leaves my mouth salivating for more, - and to top it off: It´s mostly improvised music, jumping carefree from branch to branch of an ever-expanding baobab tree throwing its roots high up in the clouds, like some confused species of wood. These guys have finally managed to cook up a record deal, and both the self titled record and this new monster are now available as tangible releases that you can actually touch and put into your stereo rack. In my review of their brilliant debut album I concentrated on the feel of the band and their history, and I thought It´d be fun to go into the tracks on this one, although it isn´t something I am used to. So out of the comfort zone and into the dream:

Sunday#1: Starts out tightrope walking, oozing away on atmospherics with soft bas and guitar patterns sneaking in on you, - and when you´ve finally calmed yourself down to 4 heartbeats a minute, the music starts to open up with a melodic guitar, sounding clean almost bluesy, alongside a rhythmic onslaught from the drums - playing both fusion-like but also with a firm hold in the 60s, -recalling the great John Densmore a good deal. The music ends in a violent and snarling attack. Fuzzy and distorted - the instruments now take on a whole new form, and slightly reminds me of blending frozen soil in a food-processor.

Saturday (Or Reggaemix as it was originally called...): The Bob Marley track? Well not exactly - not even remotely... Maybe one could look at this as de-constructed reggae, ripping the genre apart serving it with free-flowing fiery guitar - a wobbling bass that propels the music forward - and you wonder how many extra fingers there´s in play here... Well none actually, because much like the Krautrockers of the 70s, this is essentially live music performed in a studio with but a few overdubs here and there, and these are some drip drips from a coffee maker or just an extra touch of guitar, a synth or maybe just a muffled hand-drum in the background (as heard on the last couple of tracks.) All the reggae you´ll find here is in the form of a short lived guitar riff - that dissolves just as swiftly as it appears. Personally I just love the way the guitar takes over at one point and simultaneously plays solo and rhythm - WAAUW WAAUW WAAUW - making me feel as if I´m riding a see-saw from outer space.

Monday: Like throwing pebbles into a pond, creating ripples upon ripples lapping up against each other forming new musical patterns, - but then again you could be fooled by the powerful psychedelic eruption of crushingly loud drums - sounding like a stampede intertwined with a wah wah infused space excursion that sneaks it´s way into the track just before. A floating sonic universe appears - duetting with the gentle sounds of a coffee maker, and again you are reminded of the very nature of the beast. This band is all about diving head first into the music without any prefabricated ideas and structures and then sets off into whatever.

Sunday#2: Starts out creeping and crawling alluring you in - and then suddenly shifts contours and sounds like that of electric winds hitting a clothesline filled with giant coloured wash clothes moving in slow motion - flapping away according to the different tempers - highs and lows this track offers, with its rumbling drums, almost robotic sounding bass doodlings - that at times sprinkles the music with a spacey wah wah bottom, that preferably should take the listener into Krautrock dreamings. Add to this a guitar that flows from rocking and bulbous grooves to sluggishly drifting along - very much like cloths in the wind, you get a semi-jam that goes every which direction these musicians wants to go.

Tuesday# 1-2: Two pieces of contemplative music that seep into each other like 2 lovers in a sparking embrace. Both Tuesdays are like a brilliant mix of the music that comes before it. What really floats my boat and gets me going, is the fact that it sounds like the perfect soundtrack for taking a day off, just lying on the grass watching the skies pass by. This is really what it sounds like. Like listening to the big giant star-movie rolling across the blue screen. And just like the icy breezes, the intimidating black thunderclouds, narrow shafts of sunlight and the never ending colours of the day breaking or ending, - the music somehow also keeps shifting and evolving - with the ambient and low key section of the tracks being a clear blue sky - without a fluffy sheep in sight.

Essential music for looking upwards and dreaming yourself far far away.

PAPIR's second album is a doozy. This Danish trio released their 31minute debut the year before they released this almost 80 minute tour de force in 2011. It's really cool that fellow Danes CAUSA SUI got involved with "Stundum" helping PAPIR in different ways I'm sure as Jonas Munk records and produces this album and future ones as well along with CAUSA SUI's drummer Jakob Skott doing the cover art design and layout. He also will do this for future PAPIR albums except for the one PAPIR did with ELECTRIC MOON called the "Papermoon Sessions" where ELECTRIC MOON's bassist Komet did it as she has her own design company called LULU.

Pretty cool too that all three PAPIR members have been a part of ORESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE. I was reminded too of that ZONE SIX live record called "Live Wire" which is so trippy with some powerful outbursts of course but the emphasis is on the atmosphere and mood often with beautiful sounding guitar leads. "Stundum" is a lot like that. The guitar certainly comes in a variety of styles and tones here and this recording "sounds" really good.

The closer "Tuesday #2" is the most mellow of the lot being very spacey with all that atmosphere. Love the picked guitar and cymbals to open the album on "Sunday #1" while the synths and bass join in as well. The guitar starts to solo around 5 minutes in. So good. More mellow stuff before we get some power late. "Saturday" opens with the wind blowing fairly hard before a Reggae rhythm kicks in followed by guitar of the same style. Catchy stuff but it doesn't stay this way but themes are repeated so see you later on. Different guitar styles on this one and it clocks in at over 14 minutes.

"Monday" is one of my favourites as it builds with those urgent bass lines and drums as the guitar starts to make some noise. Man that bass is getting nasty 4 minutes in and the guitar is taking no prisoners. A long calm after 5 1/2 minutes and it starts to rebuild around 12 1/2 minutes with some gorgeous sounding guitar. "Sunday #2" is another really good tune with repeated guitar melodies which I like. A lot of trippy music here too and the guitar is just lighting it up before 5 minutes and later as well around 13 minutes when it turns powerful. A lot of jamming on "Tuesday #1" but that's not new here with five of these tracks being very long between 14 and 20 minutes.

Just a very enjoyable listen but a long one. A very solid 4 stars and an improvement on the debut that I really liked. And please check out Guldbamsen's review.