(2021) Richard Dawson & Circle - Henki    


Review:
The not-so-disparate worlds of botany and history collide on the likeably outlandish Henki, a self-described “flora-themed hypno-folk-metal” collaboration between English folk provocateur Richard Dawson and Finnish experimental rock veterans Circle. Combining the knotty horror-folk of Comus, the fleet guitarmonies of Iron Maiden, and the lofty art-rock of early Genesis, Henki is a lot. It’s also a ton of fun, as Dawson and company have tapped into some real heathen energy and let loose a spirited blast of woodland mayhem. Reaching deep into his heaping bag of esoterica, Dawson spins seven historical yarns, with each tale linked to a specific plant. A paleobotanist communes with a 400-million-year-old fossil on the overcast “Cooksonia, ”while the rolling and elliptical “Silene,” one of a few pieces that lean hard into Circle’s Faust-loving Krautrock past, charts the journey of a 32,000-year-old seed from emergence to germination in a bed of permafrost. Throughout it all, Dawson’s nervy tenor pings the heavens in search of ancient truths and everyday minutia while Circle do their best to keep him aloft. The band digs hard into grungy post-punk on the evocative “Lily.” At the same time, the bracing “Methuselah” lurches and lumbers before rupturing into a quick Hawkwind gallop, and “Pitcher” seals the deal with a six-and-a-half-minute blast of art-rock pageantry built on a generously caffeinated Fairport groove. It’s both riveting and ridiculous, but the synergy between the two camps is undebatable. These are wild, protean hard rock songs rooted in psychedelic folk and delivered with Green Man-worthy gusto. What’s not to love?





Track Listing:
1. Cooksonia (6:31)
2. Ivy (8:58 )
3. Silphium (12:07)
4. Silene (7:17)
5. Methuselah (8:27)
6. Lily (5:57)
7. Pitcher (6:36)


Media Report:
Genre: folk-rock, psychedelic rock
Country: UK / Finland
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits