Ceramic Hello was a duo from Burlington, Ontario, formed by Brett Wickens in 1980 after leaving Spoons. He teamed up with Roger Humphreys who added a more classical bent to the minimal synthesizer tunes (in the mold of John Foxx and Mute Records).

Their first release was the single "Climatic Nouveaux" / "Theatre Matrix" (MAN003) on Mannequin Records in 1980, followed quickly by the album The Absence Of A Canary (MAN LP1), which included the single's A-side. The 1000 copies have become a collector's item, so much so that in 2006 the German label Vinyl On Demand produced a two disc re-issue, named The Absence Of A Canary V1.1. The original LP has sold on eBay for up to US$350.