''Henki'' is a 2021 collaborative album by the English singer-songwriter

Richard Dawson Richard Dawson (born Colin Lionel Emm; 20 November 1932 – 2 June 2012) was a British-born American actor, comedian, game-show host and panelist in the United States. Dawson was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk in ''Hogan's Heroe ...

and the Finnish experimental rock group

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...

. The album has seven songs that are all related to the life of plants and trees. The title, according to Circle's

Jussi Lehtisalo Jussi Lehtisalo (born 1972) is a Finnish bassist. In 1991, he founded Circle, a prolific band drawing influences from heavy metal and krautrock to develop a style of repetitive experimental rock. He also runs a record label, Ektro Records, releas ...

, is a Finnish word meaning "spirit" or "ghost". The collaboration between Dawson and Circle started with the exchange of demos, and then they met in

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

, a city on Finland's West Coast. The COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 lockdown meant the album had to be finished remotely.

Meaning

"Methuselah" tells the story of

Donald Rusk Currey Donald Rusk Currey (January 24, 1934 – June 6, 2004) was an American professor of geography. While known in academia for his extensive research and exploration of relics of the ancient Lake Bonneville in the eastern Great Basin, he was best kno ...

's cutting down of

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning " forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, kn ...

, the world's oldest tree. "Lily" tells of a hospital nurse in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

who witnesses paranormal events after the death of patients, including the appearance of a room full of flowers.

Reception

Critics thought well of the album. Louis Pattison, writing for ''Pitchfork'', gave the album 7.5 out of 10, and said, "In a catalog already noted for strangeness, ''Henki'' might be Richard Dawson's strangest album to date. But his ideas are fertilized by these songs' peculiar twists and turns; the more Dawson and Circle lean into their eccentricities, the more their music resonates. Whatever Dawson writes about, he's really writing about people—the ways we choose to live our lives, and the strange and awful things that befall us along the way. ''Henki'' blows up these themes into widescreen, unfolding across continents, centuries, and even the afterlife." Phil Mongredien, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', highlighted "Silene" and "Methuselah": "A sprawling epic written from the perspective of a seed and a lament for an ancient tree are highlights on this inspired collaboration".

Meaning

Reception

Year-end lists

Track listing

References