Marco Papiro


Marco Papiro is a Swiss-Italian experimental musician, electronic music producer, sound artist and graphic designer born in Basel, Switzerland

Biography

Classically trained from early age, he played violin, synthesizer and bass guitar in several bands before creating and releasing his own self-produced music as Papiro. His influences are numerous and audible: drone, minimal, folk from all times and places, psychedelic, contemporary classical, industrial – but also easy listening, pop and even new age music. His compositions are generally instrumental, meditative and hypnotic, but at times also bizarre and humorous. Papiro is a multi-instrumentalist with a fondness for synthesizers from the pre-programmable era – the EMS VCS3, the Moog Sonic Six, the Roland Jupiter 4 and the Serge Modular among others.
Marco Papiro has collaborated with various musicians such as Mani Neumeier, Hans Koch or Gyða Valtýsdóttir, and has been a „sound carrier“ for Damo Suzuki on several occasions. He is also a regular guest with Swiss garage-psych band Roy & the Devil's Motorcycle. In 2005 he founded the noise band Mir, together with Daniel Buess and Michael Zaugg. Until Daniel Buess' death in 2016, the band played over a hundred shows in Europe, Brazil and Japan. As a producer he has initiated the re-release of "Herzschlag Erde / Verdunkelt die Sinne" and "Die singende Sternlaterne / Folklore des Weltalls 1982" by Swiss underground musician and outsider artist "Die Welttraumforscher", of whom he is a big admirer.
Papiro is also active as an unorthodox DJ. Together with Markus Stähli of Roy & the Devil's Motorcycle they host a monthly night were they expand their eclectic sets by using various speeds, additional instruments, prepared tapes and effects.
Marco Papiro has studied graphic design at the Basel School of Design from 1995 to 1999. As a graphic designer Marco Papiro is mostly known for the posters and album covers he has created for related artists such as Sun Araw, Spacemen 3 / Spectrum, Panda Bear, Z'EV, Antoine Chessex, Oren Ambarchi and many others. He teaches at the Basel School of Design since 2006.

Discography