Ceramic Hello was an

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

duo from

Burlington, Ontario Burlington is a city in the Regional Municipality of Halton at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Along with Milton to the north, it forms the western end of the Greater Toronto Area and is also part of the Hamilton met ...

, formed by

Brett Wickens Brett Wickens (born April 15, 1961 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a British-Canadian creative director known for his work with identity design. He is a partner for the Ammunition Design Group, and is currently living and working in the San Francisco ...

in 1980 after leaving

Spoons Spoons may refer to: * Spoon, a utensil commonly used with soup * Spoons (card game), the card game of Donkey, but using spoons Film and TV * ''Spoons'' (TV series), a 2005 UK comedy sketch show *Spoons, a minor character from ''The Sopranos'' ...

. He teamed up with Roger Humphreys who added a classical influence to the minimal synthesizer compositions (in the mold of

John Foxx John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a ...

and

Mute Records Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderm ...

History

Wickens began working with the classically-trained Humphreys after departing the band

. Ceramic Hello's first release was the single "Climatic Nouveaux" (MAN003) on Mannequin Records in 1980, followed in 1981 by the album ''The Absence of a Canary'' (MAN LP1). The album was recorded on a TASCAM eight-track

reel-to-reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

and mixed in a 16-track studio in Waterdown, Ontario; production was limited to 1000 copies. Influences on the largely-instrumental record include

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his d ...

and

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

. ''The Absence of a Canary'' gained some popularity on college radio, reaching the top 10 of

CKCU-FM CKCU-FM is a Canadian community-based campus radio station, broadcasting at 93.1 FM in Ottawa, and offering live and archived on-demand audio streams from its website. The station broadcasts 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The station's ...

's "Alternative Record Chart" for June 1981. Ceramic Hello were produced by Mannequin founder Paul Abrahams. The duo neglected to pursue the

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

circuit, Wickens explaining, "People don't want to listen. They're there to drink and talk." Ceramic Hello instead hoped that

word of mouth Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one pe ...

would help them garner an audience. ''The Absence of a Canary'' has garnered retrospective praise. The album was included in ''

Fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

'' magazine's 2010 list, "The 20 Best Minimal Wave Records Ever Made", and was described by ''Self-Titled'' magazine as "one of the 980s'great Canadian electronic records". Danilo Bulatovic at

CKUT-FM CKUT-FM is the official campus community radio station of McGill University. It can be heard at 90.3 FM in Montreal. CKUT's FM signal, broadcast from a tower on the top of Mount Royal, reaches as far as the Eastern Townships and upstate New York ...

wrote, "I am delighted that ''Absence of a Canary'' has been uncovered and hope it will continue to merit the attention it deserves as a pioneering Canadian minimal synth record." The album was also endorsed by

Fucked Up Fucked Up is a Canadian hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario, formed in 2001. The band consists of Damian Abraham (vocals), Mike Haliechuk (guitar, vocals), Josh Zucker (guitar), Sandy Miranda (bass), and Jonah Falco (drums, vocals). From 2 ...

frontman

Damian Abraham Damian Abraham (also known as Father Damian, Pink Eyes and Mr. Damian) is a Canadian musician and presenter who first came to prominence as the vocalist for the band Fucked Up. Career Abraham formed Fucked Up in Toronto in 2001. To date the b ...

. ''The Absence of a Canary'' has twice been re-issued: in 2006 by the German label

Vinyl On Demand Vinyl On Demand is a record label that targets vinyl collectors of 1970's and 80's minimal synth, industrial, and avant-garde music. Along with sales to distributors, Vinyl On Demand provides a subscription service. Most releases are limited to ...

, and in 2012 by the Toronto-based Suction Records. The re-issues included the original album along with Ceramic Hello's demos from the early 1980s. Wickens' design career paralleled his musical career in the 1980s, when he was in partnership with Peter Saville, and designed many LP covers for

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboar ...

(OMD),

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

, New Order,

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attend ...

and

Ultravox Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...

, among others. As of 2014, Wickens and Humphreys were set to begin writing a new Ceramic Hello album, with the working title ''Daisy Cutter''.

Discography

Album

* ''The Absence of a Canary'' (1981)

Single

* "Climatic Nouveaux" (1980)

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Canadian electronic music groups Musical groups from the Regional Municipality of Halton Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups disestablished in 1983 1980 establishments in Ontario 1983 disestablishments in Ontario