Richard Dawson is releasing a collaborative album with Finnish heavy metal group Circle.
Titled Henki, the album follows on from Dawson’s 2019 record, 2020, as well as last year’s Free Humans LP, which he released as part of the band Hen Ogledd. It also marks Circle’s first full-length release since 2016’s Kummitis.
The two acts have shared ‘Lily’ as Henki’s lead track, which you can watch a video for above. The track is said to be about the ghostly visions experienced by Dawson’s mother when she worked as a nurse in Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. The video, directed by Mika Taanila, features Dawson challenging Steve Davis to a game of snooker.
The album itself is said to be influenced in part by heavy metal bands, while also taking inspiration from Circle guitarist Janne Westerlund’s instruction during recording that the group be less straightforward and more "like a plant." As a result, each of Henki‘s seven tracks deal with special plants from throughout history.
"The word ‘henki’ roughly translates as ‘spirit’," says Dawson of the album’s title. "It’s a very rich word, supple in its meaning in the same way as the Geordie ‘canny’; difficult to pin down."
The collaboration came about after Dawson and Circle originally began communicating on Twitter, and the Finnish group invited Dawson to accompany them on stage at Helsinki’s Sideways Festival in 2019. "It was like being a teenager and suddenly being asked to go onstage with Iron Maiden," Dawson says of that experience. "That’s how important this band are to me."
Weird World will release Henki on November 26, 2021.
