Mains De Givre - Esther Marie

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4...according to our Phil on Thu 06 May, 2010.

If you're into violins then this is one for you. Mains De Give is Thisquietarmy's Eric Qualch (officially a busy guy) and Emilie Livernois. They're part of the Canadian underground scene you know. Emilie plays beautifully eerie and moving violin whilst Eric makes feedback a plenty on his guitar and also does FX (I'd like to think he makes latex masks for horror films but I don't think that's the case). Here you get 4 pieces of music an they're all utterly breathtaking.... guitar and violin combine to make some of the most moving experimental post shoegaze/rock whatever I've heard in ages. The 13 minute opener especially reminds me of the quiet orchestral bits in Godspeed records before the shit hits the fan and everyone gets busy. Later on in 'Cauchemar Noir et Rouge' that could be possibly seen as a more doomy affair with some dark sounding guitar feedback smothered in sombre violin (ing). The production is amazing.... and the music is so intense you just get sucked into this incredibly full sound. It's reasonably varied as well given the fact it's pretty much just made with violin and guitar. Excellent!

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MAINS DE GIVRE is a violin-centered soundscaping project involving self-taught experimentalist Eric Quach and classically-trained musician Émilie Livernois-Desroches, both of whom call Montreal home. Quach is widely known for the experimental ambient work he’s produced under his thisquietarmy alias and also is the founder of the instrumental-shoegazer band Destroyalldreamers. Livernois-Desroches has played violin since she was seven years old and been teaching since 2003. She has been a part of various chamber music and symphonic orchestras, and performs with a wide variety of bands in styles ranging from pop to medieval to metal. While her previous best-known project was the melodic folk-black metal band Blackguard (formely known as Profugus Mortis), Mains de Givre is her most experimental project to date. Quach and Livernois-Desroches first crossed paths in 2003 while playing with their respective bands Destroyalldreamers and Sugarshack as part of the emerging post-rock scene in Montreal. Following each other’s musical achievements over the years, their mutual respect for each other grew until they found themselves six years later embarking on a studio collaboration initially intended to be part of a thisquietarmy release. As their personal and musical chemistry grew, their newfound closeness turned the collaboration into an official long-term project they christened Mains de Givre (frost hands) after a nickname that had been given to Émilie (émilie-aux-mains-de-givre) by her bandmates. Mains de Givre’s debut album, Esther Marie, originates from material recorded at the duo’s first jam session in the spring of 2009. The recording opens with the very first notes the two played together, notes that evoke an eerie sadness that permeates the album and characterizes the mood of their collaboration. With the violin as the lead instrument, Quach’s guitar playing is restrained yet also tense, with him generating dark, slowly evolving drone atmospheres alongside subtle, looped-based patterns that swirl within the lower end of the sound spectrum.