Studying Absence is the project of Hemlock Ernst — a side-project of Future Islands member Samuel T. Herring — and longtime Beans collaborator Icky Reels. It arrives via Beans’ Tygr Rawwk Rcrds, and put together by the label’s CEO. Herring initially caught the attention of Beans after his rhymes appeared on the 2022 R.A.P. Ferreira single “mythsysizer instinct.”

Herring had been a longtime fan of Beans and his group Anti-Pop Consortium. After initially connecting, Beans eventually coordinated a Herring vocal appearance on the Venga track “Anti-Star System.” Beans later encouraged Herring to make a record with Icky Reels, in an effort to push artistic boundaries. “With Hemlock Ernst, I tend to work over soul and jazz break type beats. Icky Reels’ production was a far more industrial and acidic landscape. I knew this would be more of a cerebral process, breaking down the beats, challenging the rhythms, finding the voices. But I decided to accept the challenge,” Herring says. Beans was pleased with the end result, and Studying Absence is the most ambitious record in the Hemlock Ernst discography to date.

Of the album’s wide-ranging inspirations, Herring says: “Studying Absence is about my lost histories, my Southern South Pacific ancestry, my first relationships, physical abuse, drug addiction and the ghosts of the south — the roadkill on a long winter night. I was all these things but not one of them. The stories I don’t know, I can only imagine, but the same can be said for the stories that I know too well. The stories that I lived and made me who I am are now so far away that remembering them is like a dream. Did it happen? But I feel now like I felt then, like I’ve always felt looking into a mirror. This is potential and what was lost. This is technology and how it failed. This is imperialism and who it gained. A religion, an organized crime. All the people scattered.”

Herring claims that this is the most dense and complex Hemlock Ernst outing yet. He pushed the limits of his voice, capturing sounds he’s never before laid to tape. He aimed to contrast Icky Reels’ machine-like production, offsetting it with human emotion. From front to back, Studying Absence finds Herring uncovering stories and memories that had been buried for decades. After two decades of grinding, Studying Absence is some of the most honest Hemlock Ernst output yet.

Hemlock Ernst + Icky Reels
Studying Absence
Tygr Rawwk Rcrds
Tracklist

1. Raised In The South
2. Break Time In The Factory
3. Exhuming The King
4. Hold The Wires On Ellis
5. Old Dead Dogs
6. Persimmons
7. Remains Of A Memory
8. Testify

Pre-order Studying Absence HERE