THISQUIETARMY to release new album to celebrate Eric Quach’s 20-year career
Celebrating two decades of sonic exploration, thisquietarmy—Eric Quach’s enduring ambient drone project—has announced the upcoming release of ‘Langue Hybride’ on April 18, 2025. The album will be accessible through A Thousand Arms in the U.S. and ConSouling Sounds worldwide, with pre-orders currently being accepted. The primary single, ‘Respirer l’instabilité,’ provides an initial peek into the album’s vast and intricate soundscapes.
Crafted and orchestrated in under a month, ‘Langue Hybride’ took form during Quach’s residency at the Centre d’Expérimentation Musical (CEM) in Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean, Québec. The project became a challenging exercise in collaboration as Quach was entrusted with composing an hour’s worth of live-performable material with musicians he had never previously collaborated with. Reflecting on the process, Quach explains, “The goal of the residency was to perform one hour of music ready to be played live, recorded, and filmed in front of an audience, which meant I had to write new music from scratch from the first day there, with people I’ve never met nor played with before.”
The group of musicians assembled for this venture came from diverse musical backgrounds spanning classical, jazz, funk, and rock, necessitating them to venture beyond their comfort zones. “We had to find ways to push everyone out of their comfort zone in order to bridge the open improvisation of jazz with the austere classical, including my own!” Quach elaborates.
Navigating between structured composition and improvisational nuances, Quach devoted extra time outside rehearsals to refine the material, meticulously analyzing recordings, outlining song structures, and honing motifs to shape the ultimate arrangements. Recalling the extensive process, he notes, “Working with several people all at once while trying to compose the music, sorting through the improvised ideas, and blending everything together was incredibly overwhelming and intense.”
Following the one-month residency, the newly formed collective showcased their work to an audience of 100 individuals, presenting the fruit of their labor. Despite the rapid timeline, the material embodied some of Quach’s most ambitious work to date. ‘Langue Hybride’ ties back to Quach’s musical origins, igniting a reminiscent journey back to his pre-thisquietarmy days with the post-rock band Destroyalldreamers.
Mixing his latest work with tribute to his past, Quach will commemorate the album’s release with a rare full-band performance at the Dunk! Festival, honoring the 10th anniversary of his 2015 Dunk! set and marking 20 years in the music industry. ‘Langue Hybride,’ mixed by Quach and mastered by Harris Newman of Godspeed You! Black Emperor fame, amalgamates drone, post-rock, and experimental soundscapes into a multi-layered listening experience.