Other times, death feels mysterious and unknowable: In “Lily,” a Newcastle hospital nurse recalls the paranormal events that have followed the passing of those in their care. “Methuselah” is the tale of a man who sets out to find one of the world’s oldest trees, itself named after a preternaturally old biblical patriarch the joke is, he can only prove he’s found it by chopping it down. The 12-minute “Silphium” is adorned with decorative piano and sleek synths, and around its midpoint descends into an extended jazz-rock segment before dusting itself down for a final, triumphant reprise.ĭeath is everywhere on Henki, sometimes tragicomic. But Circle’s musicality also manifests in more textural ways. A couple of minutes into “Ivy,” the guitars and drums lock into a motorik pulse, and the song only gets bigger from there, powered by a sense of unearthly propulsion. “Methuselah” races along in a power-metal charge, with rippling synthesizers and crashing thunder. Most obviously, they give Dawson’s songs a sense of speed and scale. Now some 40 albums into their career, Circle’s take on various rock subgenres-prog, hard, glam, space, kraut-is performed with virtuoso technicality and camp extravagance, equal parts Neu! and Judas Priest. The songs often lean hard into exposition-“Unfortunately the fungal cultures we brought with us/Have started to degrade,” Dawson sings on “Cooksonia.” But as the words fall from his lips, they take on the quality of parables, their dense narratives encouraging the listener to hunt within them in search of deeper meanings. “Ivy” relates the myth of the Greek god Dionysus, who granted King Midas his gold-creating powers. “Silene” is the true story of a 32,000-year-old seed buried by a squirrel, later plucked from the permafrost by Russian scientists, and finally germinated in a lab. But where he really excels is as a storyteller, and Henki has some especially florid examples of the form. His guitar playing is equally distinctive: clanging chords dispensed with knotty dexterity.
From its botanical theme, something magnificent takes shape: a suite of stories that deal with ancient history and deep time, touching on themes of human toil, tragedy, and the mysteries of the afterlife.ĭawson sings in a bold and unapologetic holler that sometimes scurries up into higher octaves unexpectedly. This extended gestation seems to have worked in its favor.
They first shared demos remotely, then met for in-person recording sessions at Pori on the Finnish coast, before finally completing the album remotely as Europe entered lockdown in spring 2020. The album is a collaboration with the Finnish group Circle, and the title is a Finnish word-Circle’s Jussi Lehtisalo says it translates as something like “spirit” or “ghost,” while acknowledging that its true meaning is hard to pin down.Ĭircle and Dawson made Henki in fits and starts. At first glance you might think it’s not about people at all: Each of its seven tracks is named after a plant. Dawson has made a habit of pushing at the boundaries of his work, and his new album Henki is no different.
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