VI

In 2008, 'Papir' was considered a young group of psychedelic musicians. Now they are young plus 11 years, what ever that is. They come from Denmark and dabble occasionally into krautrock. The original line-up is Christoffer Brochmann Christensen n the drums; Nicklas Sorensen on guitars and keyboards; and Christian Becher Clausen on bass and keyboards. They have released 7 full length studio albums since 2010, the latest one being 'VI' released in May of 2019. The original lineup is still together with this album, which has 4 tracks and spans a total time of 39 minutes. This is quite short in comparison to their previous album 'V' which was a double album and ran for over an hour and a half. The intention was to keep this album more concise and focused without the long wanderings of the last album.

The tracks on this album are simply numbered. The first track, 'VI.I', is just over 10 minutes and it immediately establishes the rhythm section with a groovy, repeating bass line and a moderate, floating drum line with embellishments. The guitar comes in quickly and does some improvisation and structured passages with the bass tagging right along, note for note on the structured melodies, but allowing for the guitar to go off on it's own on the improvised sections. The echo on the guitar hangs around long enough to create a slight drone in the background. The drums move things forward and back dynamically and the other musicians follow suit taking their intensity cues from the percussion.

'VI.II' works in the same manner as the bass picks out a faster moving bass line and this time the drums play a more driving rhythm than the last track. This time, the guitars joins in giving a more frantic and intense sound. There are fuzzy chords in the background as the guitar wails out an improvised melody. There are a few times along the way that the guitar stops and allows all of the echoing reverb clear out, washing everything clean of the droning sound created by the echo, sort of like resetting itself before it attacks again. The drums add some variety to its style, not satisfied just to sit back and pound out the same pattern.

'VI.III' begins much more atmospheric with guitar effects echoing in an experimental feel before the floating bass and percussion come in to establish a moderate background. The bass line becomes more prominent as the track continues. The guitar has a more sustained feel to it as e track feels more spacey, free-floating and atmospheric overall. There is a percussive, tonal sound added to one of the guitar lines later and then the guitar becomes more improvised as the tune floats along, becoming slowly more intense as it continues as synths provide a lush drone.

The last track, 'VI.IV' is the longest at just over 11 minutes. The bass line is a bit more complex this time and the percussion is more clanky and disjointed creating a frantic feeling. The guitar begins with its improvisation. After a minute, the drums kick in with a heavy, consistant beat as the bass settles in to a repeated pattern and the guitar's improvisation becomes heavier and more intense alternating between improvisation and structured heavier passages. The bass is then allowed to have some fun for a while with a more complex pattern as the feel turns a bit looser. An interesting sounding drone comes in as the percussion gets heavier with wild drumming and crashing cymbals and then the guitar goes wild in a stoner rock vibe. The intensity calms a bit when the drone gets dropped and the drums steady out the rhythm. The guitar turns jangly and sounds more free-floating for a while. Soon, things morph into a more driving rhythm and the guitar intensifies again, things become more solid as before and brings the entire thing to a rocking conclusion.

Papir prides itself in not playing to the masses, but instead, providing music where listeners can get blessed out on psychedelic and space rock style jams that are not always satisfied to remain in one style for too long. Rhythm and tempo changes are smooth and almost unnoticeable unless you are listening closely. If you do bliss out, this album will slip by quickly without hardly any notice to the dynamics that are present. If you listen closely, however, you will notice changes throughout each track as the sound moves around dynamically almost like the tides of the ocean. Either way, the music works well and serves the purpose that it was made for. It makes sense to not over-indulge listeners on this style of music, thus it makes sense that this album was shorter than the previous one, thus making this more convenient to listen to. Anyway, this is high quality psychedelic/space rock that will appeal to those that love to let their minds float free along with the music.