From his EPK, “THISQUIETARMY” is a solitary one-man experimental drone-based music project from Montreal, Canada. Active since 2005, Eric Quach constantly furthers the boundaries of his sonic guitar experimentation to create an impressively wide range of dynamic soundscapes by combining textural & structural elements of ambient/electronic, drone/noise, shoegaze/industrial, post-punk/krautrock, black/doom metal. As a nod to the hybrid of languages Quach grew up with in Québec, the title also aptly refers to the hybrid of musical languages encountered during this residency involving musicians from different backgrounds such as jazz, metal and classical, blending seamlessly with Quach’s self-taught sonic experimentations and improvised style. The resulting album reflects the exploration of a wide range of genres, skillfully blended with his post-drone vision as a rich, ambitious, elaborate body of work.”

“Les rayons cosmiques” is first, and the nuanced tones soak in slowly, as does some tension and darkness. It creates a veiled atmosphere that you can only see through occasional breaks in the fog, and your eyes play tricks on you. Around the half-way mark, the song start to take more of a definitive shape, with a steady, tense electronic beat, and it carries on in this manner. “Respirer l'instabilité” is both darker and richer out of the gate, with a slow, low, and heavy feeling that carries the burden of Doom. Strings twist and bend out of shape, creating a sharp dissonance, as the entire song begins to unravel. Then, it transitions to gentler tones, but the darkness remains, and in comes the steady electronic beat again. The heavy tones that drop at the end are like at atom bomb.

“Les radicaux libres” begins with tension so thick, you could cut it with a knife, mostly from strings. For me, it’s like that period of time when my eyes are adjusting to the dark. The song slowly begins to take a firmer form, and strings come to life with a bit of anger. “Organismes en aérobiose” features some cleaner tones that are at least melancholy, but some might even interpret them as happy. The weight of the song’s bottom end keeps it dark still, and it transitions to hardened tones. A stormy wind picks up and threatens to blow you away, but you hold on. “Solastalgie impalpable” is the final song, and it’s downright jovial at first. A weight holds the song down while you try desperately to raise it up. The sound drops, and a steady tension emerges. It remains this way for what seems like days, neither giving in nor forging ahead, and it ends on a more traditional note.

This album is a testament to the power of musical versatility, where genre lines blur, yet nothing ever feels out of place. It is an ambitious work that takes the listener on a journey through a staggering range of influences while maintaining a singular identity. In lesser hands, such an approach might result in chaos, but here, it’s a carefully orchestrated symphony of sound. Executed with vision and precision, it results in something truly personal and will challenge your sense of musical convention.