An entrancing, energised, brilliantly crafted and epic-feel mix of folk, prog, and krautrock through tales of seeds, botany, history and myth by the Newcastle artist in collaboration with the Finnish metal band in a fabulous album unlike any other in 2021. The single Methusalah tells the story of Donald Currey, a researcher trying to find the oldest tree on Earth, then realising he’d found it after chopping it down in 1964. Silene is sung from the viewpoint of a seed, buried by a squirrel 32,000 years ago and “preserved in the permafrost/Surrounded by woolly rhinoceros bones/Unearthed by a research team from Moscow…”. Meanwhile another standout, Ivy, with uplifting chorus, delves into Greek myth, from Icarius to Midas, who eventually discovers the folly of being given the gift of turning everything into gold with a series of wonderfully vivid lines: “The petals of his flower petrified, falling scentless/Reaching out to hold his daughter, he recoiled in horror as she froze in his embrace.”
Silphium meanwhile revolves around Cyrene, a port in present-day Libya whose main trade was the mysterious Silphium plant – “the silvery cold of a coinface,” sings Dawson, who can just about fit any sentence into song, in reference to its currency. Long instruments, beautiful solos, strange, wonderful guitar sounds and vocal performances, this has echoes of Rush to Iron Maiden but also a genre-spanning otherworldly folk that Dawson makes his own with his brilliant storytelling and delivery. Just as many other media outlets have already made their sometime premature their favourite 50 album lists of 2021, they may have omitted the best still to come, including this. Out on Domino and Weird World, and also available via Bandcamp.
Men in black: Circle with Richard Dawson (third from right)
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