HENKI (WITH CIRCLE)

Hailing from Newcastle upon Tyne in England, Dawson is ostensibly a folk rocker with a literary style of lyric writing full of allusions that jump from present day to classical antiquity. The really cool Finnish experimental metal band Circle joins him as the backing combo, and it makes a great sound with a touch of sludge and occasional late 70s phat polysynth chords. On the Bandcamp page, Henki is billed as "the greatest flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record you'll hear this year." Dawson tends toward longer song structures that embrace full on prog on this album. Somehow, he still maintains hip cred. His falsetto is likely to remind you of Robert Wyatt.

Alright. Here we go.

I have listened to this album too many times, at least once I day for the past 4 months. In my life of listening to music I have never held witness to such a spectacle of diversity, emotion, and sound. Whether it's Dawsons enchanting falsetto and beautiful lyrics about human life, or circles theatrical symphonies that range from powerful electric prog on sections of Ivy, Pitcher, Lily, and Methuselah, and mesmerizing jazz rock on parts of Silphium, Cooksonia, Silene, and again Methuselah. With no tracks under 6 minutes and only 7 of them, it's definitely quality over quantity and each track has so much to delve into narratively. With the whole album being centered around extinct plant species which mirror the titles of each track and how it affects human life, such as a once thriving merchant business slowly dying with the steady extinction of the plant they depend on, Silphium, and how it affects the merchants and their families. Or, the humorous wit shown on methuselah, which is the name of the worlds oldest tree which scientist Donald Curry unfortunately finds out? when he's already cut it down. These stories which are vividly evident on each track and sometimes more than once (Ivy displays numerous accounts of ivy related stories such as the tragedy of Ikarios who discovered how to make wine but the shepherds who tried it felt it's affects and believed they had been poisoned, so they brutally murdered him and his family, the story of the boy who was swallowed by the trees outside his home, or even king Midas who's flowers [and OTHER things he adored] turned to gold as he slowly realizes the horrors of his once thought gift becoming a curse) But they are all masterfully woven together by Richard Dawson's vocals and Circles Instrumentation. To put it simply, every note played or sung on this album has its place, and every song is yet so different and beautiful in its own way.

Narratively, vocally, and instrumentally, I'll now delve into the first track of this album to thoroughly explain its genius and outline the listening experience to someone who I hopefully inspire to listen to the full album themselves.

Henki, meaning spirit or ghost in finish (the album is most likely named this in honor of the 6th track Lily), kicks off with Cooksonia, or for a better word, treds off with a slow, repetitive grinding strum and a simple drum pattern. Then, Dawson makes his entrance, with a quiet and concealing voice narrating a girl with dreams blocked by "the ocean of stone" that are her home walls where she is contained caring to her mother, which Dawson expresses and then bellows a shanty of "Ya Ho, Ya Ho, Ya Hoooo" picking up his voice for the first time. Once the first verse ends however, Dawson pauses and the guitar is replaced with synth and the drums continues, with sleigh-bells mimicking the base of the percussion pattern, creating a marvelously unexpected dreamy reflection of the young girl searching for her identity. then with the attention held, Dawson like a metamorphosis of a butterfly (unrelated, but there is a species of butterfly called Cooksonia) flying for the first time, arises into the air with a perfect falsetto and a new 3 chord guitar riff replacing the synth as if each pluck was the flap of a wing. This new instrumental and pitch reflects the sudden fast-forward of the girls life, As Dawson heavenly narrates. This pattern continues for the next few minutes but the story changes, the girl grows up broke but miraculously manages to go the university of Melbourne in Australia and with this information and a bit of research, it is evident that the women is Isabel Cookson, the scientist who did research on the recently discovered plant that her groundbreaking research of it would allow her to coin it Cooksonia. This is the wonderous plot of the track and it ends with a minute and a half of maybe the most beautiful synth rock I have ever heard, with the synth, the the 3 chord guitar riff, the drums, the sleigh bells, a new lower pitched 3 chord guitar riff, and a new instrument, the flawless overlapping melody of a piano. This art of just as masterful on every track, with different intensities, Melodies, and symphonies. I could go on for hours as this is my favorite album, from my favorite singer, accompanied by an amazing band, where everything comes together perfectly.