14 October 2009

Om/Lichens/thisquietarmy Montreal show review by The Concordian

The Concordian article by Candace Roscoe:
http://www.theconcordian.com/a-unique-experience-to-remember-1.710221

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Here's the part about me:

The video installation and raw sonic emotion that is thisquietarmy opened the show. With Quach often crouched in the sidelines with his guitar, his multimedia installation took centre stage. As you are transported into waking-life by pulsing distortion and flashing images on screen, it becomes easy to forget that one man is responsible for the textured experience. Yet, every sound was being created in real-time with a dozen effect pedals and three loop-samplers.

Quach faces a number of challenges working alone. “The main challenge is to create something interesting despite the limitations of being one person, which is easier to do in studio. To bring the tracks into a live environment, it took an endless amount of experimentation to push the boundaries of a solo performance while still maintaining your integrity.”

Quach says being an army of one is the story of his life. “Which is why this project makes even more sense,” he said. “But it works for me as I’ve always been independent and done things my own way.”

Despite Quach’s ability to juggle layer upon layer of sound all by himself, thisquietarmy has no vocals.
“The lack of vocals, in this case, is freeing because the emotions are rawer and it leaves the music completely opened.”

The audience is left to interpret the music as they wish, in the context of their own lives. Whether they did so Saturday night is unknown, but thisquietarmy did attract a silent and meditative crowd.

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