Papooz today release a new video for ‘Theatrical State Of Mind’, which follows close in the slipstream of their new album ‘Night Sketches’ (out now via Half Awake/IDOL), which has

been produced  by Bon Voyage Organisation’s Adrien Durand, with radio support at 6Music.

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The ‘Theatrical State Of Mind’ video arrives ahead of a London headline show at Oslo on 

April 9, 2019, alongside an acoustic Rough Trade East in-store appearance on April 4.

 

The new video for ‘Theatrical State Of Mind’ - directed by Pablo Padovani - pitches the track’s languid disco groove against a surreal dream that Armand Penicaut had about his bandmate Ulysse Cottin. Speaking about the warped video, which was filmed at

Bourgoyne’s Château De Tanlay, Papooz say:

 

 “Ulysse le Sévère, the blood thirsty King of Burgundy invites a couple of twins minstrels to play music in his castle. Just when you think you're safe...you're in more danger! A french tale of revenge,

lust & forgiveness.”

 

Armand & Ulysse were originally thrown together as part of boozy gatherings of literary obsessives in their home city of Paris. Early and altogether more earnest ambitions to create a political fanzine together were soon ditched in favour of finessing the music pair had instead

begun writing.

 

Early computer demos of their warped, bossa nova-informed pop fed off of a shared affinity for bedfellows as unpredictable as the Beach Boys & Ella Fitzgerald, to The White Stripes &

Karen Dalton.

 

Enabled by Durand’s butter-smooth production and Penicault & Cottin’s androgynous vocals (sung by the two Anglophiles in English throughout), ‘Night Sketches’ finds Papooz distilling

these unlikely antecedents into distinctly skewed exotic pop, leavened with surreal,

character-driven lyricism.

 

Having met previously on the fertile French alternative scene - amongst other friends including La Femme, Polo & Pan and Feu! Chatterton - the duo originally sought out the Bon Voyage frontman Durand wanting to buy one of his synths - a Minikorg 700. Durand was so

enamoured by the early demos for ‘Night Sketches’ he later heard, he lent them

not only the synth but also his own production services alongside.

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LIVE DATES

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4 April LONDON Rough Trade East (acoustic in-store set) 

9 April LONDON Oslo (on sale Friday February 8, 2019)

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B I Z Z A R R E

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