Style: Progressive rock, zeuhl, experimental rock, música popular brasileira (MPB) – (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Magma, King Crimson, Rush, Gentle Giant, Dimmu Borgir
Country: (come to) Brazil!!
Release date: 7 August 2026

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Picture this: it’s your first time at a summer music festival, the weather’s perfectly breezy, and you’ve started day drinking with a crisp lager in hand at eleven in the morning.¹ You notice a crowd of people walking toward a stage—obviously, it’s a festival—except more than a few people are carrying…rubber chickens? Yes, you see concertgoers clutching rubber chickens, pigs, and other assortments of unorthodox auxiliary instruments. The only way to get to the bottom of this strange pilgrimage is to follow the crowd, and as you do, you see quite a decent turnout for an early time-slotted show: avant-garde quintet Papangu from João Pessoa, Brazil.

Some forty minutes later, you realize why Papangu draw in such a passionate crowd. It’s no easy feat combining jazz fusion, progressive rock, and neoclassicism—a blend of genres known as zeuhl²—in a studio, let alone in a live setting, yet the band pull it off effortlessly. Throw in folky Brazilian chants, lively crowd work, and, yes, a rubber chicken solo, and suddenly Papangu become an unforgettable name in the underground prog scene. For those listening at home, don’t fear: after two successful releases since 2021, the band takes on new territory with radiance in their third anticipated release, Celestial. 

Papangu’s music isn’t whole without its rich storytelling of local Brazilian folklore. Holoceno, Papangu’s first (and heaviest) record, lyrically follows the journey of a bandit (cangaceiro) who sets out to prevent an ecological disaster because of his wrongdoing. Lampião Rei takes a biographical tone, exploring the life of a famous cangaceiro with a touch less sludge and more local folk elements. Celestial explores a new side of Papangu: vocals take a large step back, instrumentation comes forward, and the heavy sludge elements that were so identifiable in previous records are traded in for a bright sound rooted in mid 70s prog rock, zeuhl, and no shortage of regional musical influences. 

So, if a good amount of Celestial’s runtime is instrumental, how does its narrative get told? Well, the record’s identity is entirely textural. The Rhodes piano, one of eight different vintage synths³ used, is at the core of the music’s tactile weave, employing a uniquely warm, glassy timbre. Vibrant, chime-like melodies bounce across the soundstage in tracks like “Colosso” and “Mau-Olhado” with sunny disposition, while a track like “Taxidermia” is washed in dissonance to quietly blend other synth and guitar lines together. Add in strong drumming and other percussive instruments, and Celestial becomes a sensory adventure. Explore your way through Celestial as “Celeste” gently opens with gorgeously ambient classical piano, only for Vitor Alves’s tight drumming to turn the piano’s frolick into a ‘clomp’ with staggered tom/snare hits and off-beat shaker action. The adventure turns into dungeon⁴ crawling in “Fechamento de Corpo” with ambient synth arpeggios, flute ornamentation, and laid back, surf rock-esque guitar grooves providing the perfect spelunking soundtrack. Many more moments on Celestial aim to elicit a physical feeling, with dreamy synths balancing against percussive rhythms that ‘lag’, ‘drip’, ‘crunch’, ‘creep’, and even ‘clap’ as Papangu spotlight the latter with Brazilian forró and ciranda rhythms dancing away in “Afirmação”. 

Celestial’s wide variety of tangible feel is largely due to the record’s production. Papangu’s staunch belief against AI propelled the band to record, mix, and produce Celestial entirely analog, aiming to not only make a statement, but to recreate the nostalgia of mid 70s production with the technical prowess of today’s mixing. What results is the combination of clarity and comfort: the transition of a funky 15/8 rhythm into 6/8 and beyond in “Taxidermia” is so clear, you could teach a non-musician to count the rhythm. “Bode Expiatório” subtly borrows Tigran Hamasyan’s jazzy melodic work in the spirited guitars/bass before combining about a dozen musical parts to build-up into a flashy, spacey outro, one with the high-energy DNA of Lampião Rei without its heaviness. For as many instrumental lines that play on at any moment in Celestial, the music is never overwhelming and competition between parts is non-existent. Even the occasional vocal performance never overpowers the instruments, with Rodolfo Salgueiro flexing some of the most audibly harsh vocals I’ve heard over seamlessly technical instrumentation (“Mau-Olhado”, “Iamanakaru”). No, instead, voice and music flawlessly flow into one another, not unlike how Holoceno’s favorite body of water, the “São Francisco” River, ebbs through the Canastra mountains in southeastern Brazil.

Papangu’s three releases—from the humble bedroom recordings of Holoceno to the grand musical tapestry of Celestial—each take on a unique identity. The impressive effort across all three records is consistent, with Celestial harnessing the most dynamism the band has seen yet. Once again, the quintet have successfully shared their passion for their geographical roots and prog music alike: fans of both Papangu’s heavier music and jazzy writing can find enjoyment in the album’s liveliness and replayability. So, to fully enjoy the album, be sure to grab your headphones, walking shoes, chicken (optional), and fully sink all five of your senses into this vastly technical and explorative record—you’d be remiss to sleep on Celestial’s grand journey.

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Recommended tracks: Colosso, Taxidermia, Bode Expiatório, Fechamento de Corpo, Afirmação
You may also like: Antropoceno, Tela Azzu, Chercan, Kaatayra
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Decks Records

Papangu is:
– Pedro Francisco (electric and 12-string acoustic guitars, triangle, harmonica, flute, floor tom, rubber chicken, Fender Rhodes, Moog Matriarch, bells, caxixi, vocals, production)
– Marco Mayer (electric bass, vocals, production)
– Hector Ruslan (electric guitar, vocals)
– Rodolfo Salgueiro (Hammond organ, piano, Fender Rhodes, Juno 106, Minimoog, Moog Matriarch, DX7, shaker, jamblock, vocals, production)
– Vitor Alves (drums, triangle, shaker)
With guests:
– Richard Behrens (mixing, recording, production)
– Sidney Claire Meyer (mastering)

1. Oh ArcTanGent, how I miss you so. ↩︎
2. Finding its roots in the free jazz movement, Zeuhl was coined as a genre tag by the band Magma, whose sound specializes in the complexity of mixing minimalist jazz melodies with dynamic drumming and classical elements. An additional fun fact: the word ‘Zeuhl’ means ‘celestial’ in Christian Vander’s (founder of Magma) fictional language, Kobaïan, and Celestial sure does embody said starry sound. ↩︎
3. A comprehensive list of the synthesizers used are on the album’s Bandcamp page. ↩︎
4. If a music description like this is interesting to you, check out dungeon synth artist FIEF. Or, just ask my colleague Andy where to start with dungeon synth. Please, I dare you. ↩︎