Absent Sounds Archive

One of our favourite albums of 2026 was released only 16 days into the year. 6 months in and we're still just as captivated by it as the day we first listened. That album was Shaking Hand by Shaking hand and this week we're joined by the band as we talk through the record track by track. A shaking hands doesn't mean losing control and the Manchester-based band proves it on the debut album that drift in and out of time, fall apart, and come back together, all while sounding completely sure of themselves.The band is George Hunter on vocals and guitar, Freddie Hunter on drums, and Ellis Hodgkiss on bass.

This week, we have finally reached the end! The final Treefort episode aired with bands: Bonnie Trash (Emmalia + Sarafina) and Heaven for Real (Mark Grundy + J. Scott Grundy). Despite sitting on different sonic registers, both find themselves reckoning with what music holds — between trust, grief, fatherhood, and making art in between. Bonnie Trash's record Mourning You felt like the answer to what you make for someone who cannot "hear" it, while Heaven for Real ask why you make anything at all. Both arrive, by different routes, at the same quiet answer. This episode uniquely features twins and helps us observe another key model for trust. Find full transcripts, videos, and all the previous episodes, here :]

Back in March we asked 10 artists at Treefort Music Fest 2026 some version of the same question: what question their music was trying to answer right now. This is the 3rd of four episodes. Three artists, without knowing the others had done the same thing, were circling this one: What does it cost to let yourself be seen? What gets made in the space between hiding and arriving, and while even when you want to go inward, just like you’re still sitting listening to this on the other end, there is still something or someone, waiting to receive you. Today’s episode is featuring Emily Yacina, Fanclubwallet (Hannah Judge) and Kishi Bashi.

Taupe is a shimmering four-piece from Montreal whose debut record New Window arrived this spring. We caught up with Andrew Miller, Heather Ogilvie, Jess Barry, and Evan Magoni before their show at the Cameron House, during one of the first warm Toronto afternoons to talk about the multitude of pieces tucked into this record. It feels like a free association conversation of thought, from Cosmic Crisp apples, the authorship of "Truly Authentic," to life being restructured into a song- and most importantly of all, where on earth Pasta No 1 and 2 are. If you're a longtime friend of Absent Sounds, this is a really cool episode not only because of the music, but because its actually our third time talking to Evan and Andrew for the show. Whew! New Window is out now. Listen wherever you get your music.

Sometimes you go into a project trying to make sense of something and come out with a better sense of what you're trying to make sense of.This is the second of four episodes Absent Sounds made at Treefort Music Fest in March 2026 — a docuseries built from ten artist interviews done over five days in Idaho. Each episode weaves between voices, asking some version of the same question: what is your music trying to answer right now?Footballhead and Chalk both released albums within days of heading out on tour, and days within days of sitting down with us. Still Depths had no blueprint for making Like Hell either. This episode finds us inside of it. Where the making and the surviving and figuring it all out were happening at the same time.

There is a banner plane making loops over downtown Boise, as we showed up to record this episode. It says USA LOVES TRUMP. Below it, Treefort music festival is happening. This is the first of four episodes Absent Sounds made at the fest in March 2026 — a docuseries built from ten artist interviews done over five days in Idaho. Each episode weaves between voices, asking some version of the same question: what is your music trying to answer right now?Episode one: we're sitting with Dan English, Jo Passed, and VERTTIGO. Together we move through the moral weight of crossing the border to make music during political collapse, the eight years it took Jo Passed to come back to releasing, the fifteen years it took VERTTIGO to become the band they are now, and the particular shame and relief of making something anyway. Is any of this enough? Is showing up enough?