Henry The Rabbit – Abraham’s Sausage Pot
Halasan Bazar are a special band and their drummer, Craig Martin Wood aka Henry The Rabbit, is a special part of the Copenhagen-based hippy collective. When solo he makes cinematic yet intimate folk music, his gently psychedelic melodies drawn from a rich, yet often minimal, template of instrumentation. Recorded between 2011 and 2015, Abraham’s Sausage Pot is his third outing under the name and it starts where his 2013 instrumental predecessor left off, mesmeric ukulele picked out over a menacing percussive lurch, conjuring echoes of Sufjan Stevens circa Seven Swans once again as it goes.
All that swiftly changes, however, when Wood’s patented “psychedelic ukulele skiffle” is brought to life on “Planet Caravan” by the surprising inclusion of a hushed vocal harmony in support of swooping strings. Used sparingly, vocals return only once more in any meaningful capacity and they do so on album standout “Conjunction Day”, the most full of all Abraham’s mixes, and one that combines gorgeous glockenspiel twinkling and weighty percussion with a nodding rhythm, creaky psych-folk blossoming into awkward pop as if emerging from a long winter’s hibernation.
From here Wood’s ukulele playing really comes into its own, “Road To The Eastern Sea” first dancing a pretty little quick-step around a sprung Balkan dancefloor as if it were gently cranked out of some cutesy music box, the similar “Rose Apple” running with the idea, a crafty string part breaking from melancholy to bittersweet like the emergence of a single ray of sunlight from behind some large cloud. Together they’re a rather special pair that deserve to be kept in a secret locket close to one’s heart. Keeping the surprises coming, album closer “La Colmena” is then a track of two halves, dizzying folk with late ideas of making it onto a Yann Tiersen score. Yes, it turns out that Henry The Rabbit is just the sort of act that could seemingly pull himself out of a magician’s hat.
Best track: “Conjunction Day”
~Abraham’s Sausage Pot is out now via Moon Glyph.~