Olafur Arnalds show

Tuesday night, I got a panic email from my co-promoter Steve from Suoni Per Il Popolo / Sala Rossa pointing me to The Drake Hotel's website, where it said that Olafur Arnalds & co. canceled their show in Toronto because their touring broke down in the middle of nowhere, Michigan.

With the help of Caleb from ericrock.com I managed to track them down. They were getting a new van from Chicago the next morning, which arrived a lot later than expected. Add the canadian border delays and the usual traffic jam through Mississauga/Toronto (note to self, always use the paying highway 407), Oli & crew got to the venue close to 11pm, while I was performing - after a 13 hours drive, and I had plug & play almost immediately as it was getting late.

That was one hell of a stressful night, but everything ended well. The turnout was good for a Wednesday, all expenses were covered - everyone's set were very good, especially Olafur's which was quite beautiful & heartbreaking. Thanks to Saccidananda & Suoni Per Il Popolo. You can check out some pics of the evening here.

Also, yes. I performed with the addition of an analog moog synth for the first time, adding basslines and leads. I did an impulsive & improvised strictly-synth set at lab.synthese back in may, but that was pretty free & experimental. This time, it blended well with the regular TQA material.

Do not miss Ólafur Arnalds in Montreal (July 16th) with thisquietarmy & Saccidananda

Suoni Per Il Popolo & This Quiet Army Records présentent:

Ólafur Arnalds, thisquietarmy & Saccidananda

Mercredi 16 Juillet 2008
La Sala Rossa, Montréal QC
4848 St-Laurent

10$ à la porte / 8$ à l'avance (billets en vente):

* Casa Del Popolo, 4873 St-Laurent
* Atom Heart, 364B Sherbrooke e.
* Cheap Thrills, 2044 Metcalfe (2e étage)
* L'Oblique, 4333 Rivard
* Phonopolis, 5403A Parc

++

Programmation / Portes à 20h30pm:

21h00pm: Saccidananda
21h45pm: thisquietarmy
22h30pm: Ólafur Arnalds

++

Ólafur Arnalds (Islande, Erased Tapes)
En tournée avec un quatuor de corde - pour les amateurs de l'Islande et Sigur Ros, Bjork, Johan Johansson…
www.olafurarnalds.com

What Erased Tapes says:

Fragile, emotional, classical indie music would maybe be the best term to describe Ólafur Arnalds' music. Combining classical instrumentation with an indierock aesthetic there are obvious comparisons to Sigur Ros, but Arnalds is sculpting his own epic, string-laden compositions.

Only 21 years of age, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside Reykjavík. He as immersed himself completely in the world of delicate symphonic compositions in a near weightless orchestral undertaking. Mixing strings and piano with loops, ambiance, electronics and beats. Debut album 'Eulogy for Evolution' (Now out in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK and Iceland!) takes the listener on a journey, representing different periods in life, from birth to death. The follow-up 5-track EP 'Variations of Static' so far has only been available as a limited tour edition. While keeping the classical foundations of his debut album, here Arnalds incorporates crackling electronics and the dead voice of a machine; like vague memories of tradition lost within the digital age we all live in.

Avec invités locaux:

* thisquietarmy (ambient/shoegaze)
www.myspace.com/thisquietarmy

Armé d'une guitare et d'une panoplie de pédales, Thisquietarmy esquisse ses fresques sonores en temps réel à l'aide d'échantilloneurs, qui sont soumises à différents processus de stratification, décomposition, reconstruction en mouvance perpétuelle pour aboutir à une musique instrumentale texturée qui s'avère rêveuse ou même cauchemardesque, dépendamment de l'ambience - le tout, accompagné de projections visuelles texturées pseudo-abstraites en noir & blanc. (pour les amateurs de Nadja/Aidan Baker, Tim Hecker, Destroyalldreamers, etc.)

* Saccidananda (post-jazz/math)
www.myspace.com/saccidananda

Découvrez le nouveau et jeune trio montréalais qui s'apprête à enregistrer avec Dave Bryant (Godspeed, Set Fire To Flames) aux studios Pines Recordings (Growing, Think About Life, The Hot Springs, Hrsta, etc.) à la fin du mois - - - pour les amateurs de Tortoise, Slint, Do Make Say Think, Mogwai, etc.)

Control & Lopez

Someone stole Ian Curtis' gravestone. Gah. Maybe someone have just seen Control, and believed that he's just the way Debbie has portrayed him. Anyway, good movie - see it if you haven't already, the pictures are gorgeous, signed Anton Corbijn.

++

In other news, I went to see Francisco Lopez earlier this week. By "went to see", I mean I got blindfolded and sat in an outward concentric circle in the middle of a quadraphonic sound system configuration at the Sala Rossa, while he played (well, I don't know what he did, as I was blindfolded) ambient sounds. Unfortunately, they had to turn of the A/C probably because it would've distracted the whole experience, and it has gotten almost unbearably hot for the whole performance, which made it hard to get into because of the discomfort. The best part is the ending, when the sounds faded and you didn't know if it was finished or if something was coming back to frighten us. Someone started to bang their hands together, and the rest of the sheep followed and that was it.

The Art Lover

Making your 2008 Fantasia movie selection? Why not include the world premiere of 'The Art Lover', a 9-min short film by emerging Montreal director Andrew Krajewski. The film is described as Quentin Tarantino meets Jean Baudrillard in a bathtub: a hitman reminisces about killing an artist.

It features the song 'World Death Clock' by thisquietarmy, as well as snippets of other released songs. I haven't seen it yet, but this is what I've been told. Schedule it for July 20th, 7:00pm at the DB Clarke Theater.

More details here: http://www.fantasiafest.com/2008/en/films/film_detail.php?id=194

Edit: Andrew put it up on youtube.

Hate mastering

The last two days were spent re-mastering the release for Elevation as I wasn't so happy anymore. Little anomalies were noticed through playbacks on various platforms. As we all know, music has to sound good on ipods these days. But I mostly test it on my old-school Panasonic Shockwave discman, computer speakers, a soundsystem with subwoofer and in the car. Thus, work was skipped and dinner were served at odd hours, but it was necessary to erase any doubts, and reach that point of satisfaction. Producing music is a love/hate thing, the hate being emphasized thoroughly at the end of the journey. I hope the label likes it, they are currently listening to it at the moment. Artwork is in the works... I'm excited about my first digipak.

Friendship Cove

Always fun to play in loft spaces, especially one with access to the roof where you can watch the fireworks, the skylights and the mills between bands change-ups. The crowd was relatively pretty young, but the kids seem to enjoy it. However, I seemed to be the only one drinking that night, which was weird. Place Hands played an amazingly loud set, we swapped CDs. Saccidananda showed a lot of promise, looking forward to hearing them through a decent venue sound system next month.

Tren Brothers

Yesterday, I stumbled upon the Tren Brothers gig at La Sala Rossa, for the Suoni Per Il Popolo. The Tren Brothers are Mick Turner & Jim White from Dirty Three - basically Dirty Three without Warren Ellis, the violinist. I saw Dirty Three in 2000-something, at the Cabaret. They were accompanied by Zak Sally, then - also bassist of Low, which was one of my favorite gigs of all-time.

The Tren Brothers played a tremendous set. I never knew that a drummer could make me fall asleep, as I was drifting in and out of consciousness. Of course the 6-7 beers I had at a corporate party prior the show also had something to do with that. Anyway, check them out if they're playing near you.

Speaking of Low, the Gospel Retribution Choir led by Alan Sparkhawk are playing tonight, which is very, very tempting...

++

Tomorrow I'm playing at the Friendship Cove, a DIY artsy underground loft in the middle of the abandonned, ghostly streets of Griffintown. 215A Murray Street is the address. I'm opening for Place Hands, this math/indie pseudo-hardcore band from Toronto & newcomers to the scene, Saccidananda. 5$. Check it out.

Autres Directions

Superbe critique de l'album 'Unconquered' sur l'excellent webzine français Autres Directions, merci Denis! À lire ici.

Divan Orange

Gig at Divan Orange yesterday, it went okay I think. I had problems with my laptop's screensaver for the visuals… it was distracting. The sound was massive, the bass on the new stage was boomy, which is good for TQA stuff because it usually lacks the low-end. My sporadic basslines (aka octave guitar notes) were a lot more present, and I also triggered more drum-loops than usual on the spot, making it a more upbeat/rockier set than the usual washed out hazy ambient. I also played some really old stuff that I haven't touched since the very first TQA shows, and some new stuff I just made up a few hours before the gig... and made quite a random mix-mash.

Apillow played his first set in 3 years (and 2nd ever), with guest musicians Kit Malo & Mike Baker. Very good stuff.

Playing again at the Friendship Cove in Griffintown this Saturday, with Toronto's Place Hands and newcomers Saccidananda. Should be a fun loft show...

Follow-up to Orange

Aidan Baker came over yesterday evening. We listened and figured out what to do with our tracks. They were recorded live in one afternoon back in October, playing simultaneously & completely improvised. Kept some, flushed some, editing & clean-up will ensue. It will sound pretty different to what we've done with Orange, not quite terror-ambient-ish. There's actually a part with a nice groove, that's all I'll say for now.

Entry for no one

I'm obviously not updating. Mainly, because no one is reading because I haven't publicized this. So for those who are reading, well... this is a random entry. I can't be arsed to make the effort to make a nice layout. I did try at some point, but unfortunately between work and music, I don't have time.

What else. I'm recording an EP for Elevation Recordings. Although it's turning into an album because some songs are just too long, past the 40-minute mark. It's currently in the DIY mastering process... which drives me as insane as the mixing process.

I'm trying to book some U.S. dates for the end of august, but I'm starting to lose my motivation... All I really want to do is not do anything for a while. But maybe that's not true either. If anyone in NY, MA, RI, NH, CT, PA, etc. wants to book me from August 26th-31st, get in touch.

++

I also got some more reviews for 'Unconquered':

* Imperiumi.net (Finland):
http://www.imperiumi.net/alb_2.php?id=7517

* Nothingatall.net (UK):
http://nothingatall.net/review.php?what=reviewView&item=234

* Vital Weekly (Holland):
http://vitalweekly.net/628.html

* Exclaim! (Canada):
http://www.exclaim.ca/musicreviews/generalreview.aspx?csid1=122&csid2=847&fid1=31443

* The Metal Observer (Canada/Germany):
http://www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=14351

* Music-Scan (Germany):
http://www.music-scan.de/Templates/reviews_team.php?id=9886

* noiZine (Greece):
http://noiz.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/thisquietarmy-%e2%80%93-unconquered/

* Built On A Weak Spot (USA):
http://www.builtonaweakspot.com/2008/06/thisquietarmy-unconquered.html

Textura, Muzyka & Noise.fi

A few reviews added...

Textura (Canada):
http://www.textura.org/reviews/thisquietarmy.htm

"Unconquered is a more than solid debut album and the contrast between the hazy washes and scalpel-sharp leads Quach produces with the guitar makes for an arresting combination." (by textura.org)

Muzyka (Poland):
http://www.muzyka.pl/recenzje/pokaz/162/rss.html

Noise.fi (Finland):
http://www.noise.fi/levyarvostelut/?id=8805

More blogging, an ontario recap & some heads-up

Hey hey - - -

I've decided that I should write more in this blog, and make it more personal instead of just using it to make announcements. So let's start. How about a recap of the last few shows? I drove to Toronto a couple of weeks ago, and bumped into Pas Chic Chic at a rest stop on the 401 as they were playing the same night at the Drake Hotel - chatted a bit with Roger, Radwan & Marie-Douce while in line to get a Tim Hortons' coffee.

The Toronto show was better than any other Toronto show I played before with Destroyalldreamers - mainly because well, people attended! The sound sucked but I made it work OK I think. Good to see Kevin from The Riderless & meet Dorian from Holoscene. Aidan Baker played with Naw & Jacob Thiesen as Whisper Room - I thought it was pretty cool.

I did some records store the next day, dropped CDs off at Soundscapes & left a promo at Rotate This, before heading to Hamilton - and then to Waterloo. By then, the fog had settled on the way there and it felt like we were driving inside the artwork cover of a Jesu record. We arrived at the Trepid House, where we got treated for some homemade food and the grand tour of the house: three-floors, theme-rooms (pirate room, arboretum, aquarium/studio, etc.), living room as the main space for music, attic, etc. Because Mahogany Frog had a 45 mins set-up & tear, Jeff proposed that I play in the attic, which is a gallery space. The house P.A. / soundsystem was wired throughout the whole house, so people were able to come up to sit & watch, or listen in one of the rooms - I thought that was such a fantastic concept, that I decided to play 2 sets (opening & closing) - it just felt warm & comfortable, it felt like home. The sound in the attic was also perfect.

The Hamilton show was a completely different beast. The vibe was completely off and at the other extreme. The venue was large and cold, depressing. The rain didn't help. It just felt dark. And I think people could feel it in my set, as it was a completely discharge of angst & rage, yet in an ambient context… there was piles of layers of confusion, very hazy but very present at the same time. That's how I felt anyway. Ryan (Electroluminescent) joined me on stage for the closing song (Warchitects), playing bass-synth. We also did some improv at the end. Also met Beta Cloud who came from Buffalo to see this.



All in all, a great mini-tour… There isn't many pictures to share, unfortunately. Here's Owen Cherry's shots from the attic show: http://trepid.org/events/houseshows/photos/2008-04-11%20-%20thisquietarmy/

++

In other news, thisquietarmy's Unconquered debuted at 4 of Montreal's CKUT 90.3 MHz Top 30 charts, and is currently 23 on CIBL 101.5 MHz. That was quite surprising…

++

Also some Unconquered reviews and heads-up:

The Silent Ballet:
http://www.thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/1322/Default.aspx

"Unconquered is a fitting name for the release – it presents unheard-of territory within the confines of the ambient-drone subgenre, and quickly thisquietarmy claims it as his own. The release is so fresh, so satisfying, that it makes you wonder why no one else has tried any of this (on this scale) before. I can't answer that question, but I do know this: there will be a lot of artists following in the footprints left by this album. It may not be a perfect album, but the most adventurous ones never are – perfection requires a commitment that musical explorers cannot make, and to fault them for pushing the boundaries of genre is to have gravely mistaken priorities." (by Zach Mills)

Montreal Mirror:
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/040308/rex.html
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/040308/disc.html

"While we're in review mode, there are a couple of other discs that you should bug out to, namely Unconquered, by Montreal solo ambient artist Eric Quach's new joint Thisquietarmy. This disc actually comes to us from Krakow, Poland's Foreshadow label, and if you are getting hip to the exploding drone scene, Thisquietarmy is guaranteed to turn you into a veritable pile of ooze. Instead of just relying on the same old dirt-box distortions and done-to-death loops, Thisquietarmy sounds light years ahead of the huge traffic of drone debuts being released right now." (by Jonathan Cummings)

"Light, glitter and gloom come together on this celestial instrumental LP by Montreal's Eric Quach." (by Lorraine Carpenter)

’Unconquered’ album out in march 2008; free MP3 single available now!

Thisquietarmy signs to Foreshadow Productions to release its debut album 'Unconquered', that will see the light in March 2008. Foreshadow is fairly new and upcoming record label from Krakow, Poland - www.foreshadow.pl

The album will feature a collaborative track with Aidan Baker (guitar, Nadja) and another one with Meryem Yildiz (vocals), as well as complete original conceptual art pieces by Eric Quach/Thisquietarmy, done specially for the album's artwork. Here's the tracklist, for a total of 54 mins:

01. Immobilization
02. Battlefield Arkestrah
03. Warchitects
04. The Sun Destroyers
05. Death of a Sailor
06. The Great Escapist
07. Mercenary Flags
08. Empire

++

A free internet MP3 single release called "Battlefield Arkestrah & Dronewars" is already available to stream and download. It features the single "Battlefield Arkestrah" which clocks at more than 8 minutes and its b-side "Dronewars" which clocks at more than 16 minutes for a total of 24 minutes! Exclusively released on Foreshadow.

Cover art by thisquietarmy.

Go listen or download here: thisquietarmy.foreshadow.pl