Meridians 12" now available via Thrill Jockey & Pirate Ship Records in the USA

Having a hard time getting your hands on the Meridians vinyl?
Shipping costs from Switzerland or Canada too expensive?

Thrill Jockey and Pirate Ship Records in the USA are now distributing it.

Artwork preview for upcoming releases

This is what it's the works for late fall '10: CD/LP releases on Aurora Borealis & Basses Fréquences. More info when available, here's a peak!

More reviews and my reviews of their pointless reviews

Actually, they're kind of pointless reviews. But this blog is like my scrapbook, so everything gets posted here. Et hop!

While the first reviewer claims he's a guitarist and decides to review the album based on what he thinks he knows about how I play with effects - not sure what he's trying to prove, really. I mean, what kind of reviewer write things like "Then some swooping flanger, etc. Blah."? Just for the record, no flanger was used on this album, ugh. But that's not the point. This statement is: "I fear that my familiarity with Quach’s technique prevents me from a more objective appraisal of this release". Brilliant.


The second reviewer decides to write some form of drifting prose poetry about the album, in polish. Evidently, I had to use google translate to get a feel of what was written --- unlike japanese, the polish-english translator is not bad at all. Check it out: here. Cute right? I appreciate the effort though, just writing whatever you're feeling as your own visual and emotional interpretation of the music while listening to it. But how does that justify anything about any given review score, good or bad... no idea.


And last but not least, this one is from S.S.G. The reviewer treats Meridians as a "post-rock" record, looking for "post-rock" within that record, writing this review from a "post-rock" point of view... I don't know. Essentially, the term "post-rock" is mentionned several times throughout this review and has funny statements such as: "But Meridians never claimed to go anywhere, post-rock was always more concerned about the journey itself."

... Post-rock? Seriously? Who said anything about post-rock. What the. Why. What. Why? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought post-rock was about using the elements in rock music such as guitar, bass, drums and you know, push its boundaries out of the traditional conventional sounds and structures of rock songs. But here we have two guys making drones out of their guitars... Uhhh. I don't get it. Maybe thisquietarmy does have a little of post-rock type of guitar sound on some past tracks, but that's about it. Scott & I made a collaborative ambient/drone record, why don't you treat it as one?


I honestly don't get these reviews - but hey, thanks for writing about the records, I still appreciate them. After all, 6 + 6.8/10 + 6.9/10 aren't bad scores at all. In fact, they're actually quite reasonable - no bitterness at all here. But their content... wow, just wow.

Montreal Mirror review of Meridians

Johnson Cummins reviews Meridians in his weekly column Punkusraucous:


"The real gleaming gem for me this week is the collaboration of ambient drone artist thisquietarmy (aka Eric Quach) with fellow dronester Scott Cortez (lovesliescrushing) under the moniker Meridians. On these two epic and minimalist tracks, released on a limited-edition 12-inch with a pressing of 500 on Three:four Records, the pair expertly explore the limits of space while inviting the listener into their dark and desolate soundscapes. Longtime readers of this column may notice that I’ve been fawning over thisquietarmy quite a bit lately, but with his amazingly prolific output and the results remaining this astonishing, it seems like Quach could soon become a major player in the overcrowded ambient underground."

VOIR article

Olivier Lalande writes an article about thisquietarmy in this week's VOIR:

thisquietarmy: l'invasion silencieuse

Eric Quach doit m'envoyer un diagramme pour mieux retracer les collaborations auxquelles il s'est prêté sous le pseudonyme thisquietarmy. Cette année seulement, il lançait le projet Mains de givre, en collaboration avec la violoniste Émilie Livernois Desroches (l'album Esther Marie est fort bon), signait un EP en compagnie de l'Américain Scott Cortez (de lovesliescrushing) en plus d'un autre en solo, Aftermath, inspiré des œuvres de l'artiste allemand Anselm Kiefer. Et par le biais des parutions de son micro-label TQA Records, Quach collabore avec nombre d'amis pour l'emballage, etc. "Chaque parution est comme un petit projet artistique", explique Quach, qui s'est fait connaître comme guitariste au sein du combo post-rock Destroyalldreamers. "Vu que je suis seul maintenant, j'aime aller chercher des gens pour faire des choses."

Les "choses", dans son cas, sont du registre ambiant spécial-très-spatial. Une progression logique après le post-rock, selon Quach. "Ça se rejoint pas mal. C'est instrumental, atmosphérique... Et ça peut se faire seul à la guitare." Hormis d'occasionnels ajouts, Quach se débrouille en effet avec seule sa six cordes ainsi qu'une horde de pédales. Un choix d'arme qui lui permet de se produire live "pour vrai" et d'improviser à sa guise. Ce dernier élément est très présent sur scène, où il s'accompagne de visuels de son cru. "Il y en a qui se font des listes de chansons à interpréter, moi je fais des listes de visuels. Ce sont eux qui dictent où je m'en vais." Le 5 août à la Sala Rossa avec 01ek, Alexandre Saint-Onge et L'Ami Jacob.

Tokafi reviews Aftermath & Meridians, Losing Today reviews Parallel Lines, Sonomu reviews Mains de Givre

Tobias Fisher of Tokafi intertwines his impressions of "Aftermath" & "Meridians" in a double-review:



Roberto Mandolini reviews Parallel Lines' 38:22 for Losing Today (in italian):


Sonomu reviews Mains de Givre: