Thisquietarmy & Yellow 6 - Death

Eric (thisquietarmy) & Jon (Yellow6) met on the evening of March 13th 2009, in Montreal, as they were both scheduled to be part of the 6th annual Under The Snow Festival curated by Jean-François Rioux, founder of emoRAGEI Magazine & Where Are My Records. The circumstances of their recording session mostly revolved around the spontaneity of their get-together, the cold & snowy Canadian winter weather and their exhaustion from lack of sleep, both having played shows the night before, Jon also had just landed in town late afternoon from gigs in the USA. Nonetheless, merely an hour after they’ve met and a quick tour of the city sights, Eric & Jon were already set up to play and record at TQA HQ, Eric’s living quarters. Without any discussion prior
to recording and fuelled by their respective state of exhaustion, the two guitarists would simply wing it out and feed off each other’s sound semi-consciously for two straight hours while the computer picked up the separate tracks from the tone of their instrument & array of pedals.

The result does not sound like their individual solo works blended together, but rather a distinct project. The tension from their playing and the intertwined mood of the recording were captured under these specific conditions of their meeting, which could probably not be re-created without recreating the same circumstances. Even though they both instantly felt good about their chemistry, it took more than a year for the ingredients to brew together before revisiting the material again for mixing and editing, which finally happened during the spring of 2010. The final by-product reflects the melting snow that occurred under sun, the water particles evaporating away with every repeated listen and every little change in the mix; the initial winter landscapes were slowly but strangely turning into a journey in the desolate desert, as if the warmth had stripped away the layers of ice to reveal what was underneath them: suffocating dry land

In the end, “DEATH” presents a lonely journey of great intensity across the desert, facing inner and external elements, fatally leading to an escape for salvation. The journey is split into three tracks: “Sand” discovers the tough, arid and suffocating desert, as attractive as it is frightening, it surrounds you completely without compromise and there is no turning back. “Furnace” describes the beginning of the blistering heat and the dusty pilgrimage; the rocky landscape is mirrored by a great loneliness in which is revealed our inner demons, ready to engage a battle without mercy against your own soul. “Salt” depicts the comatose state of being at the tail end of the journey, disoriented and dehydrated, lost within psychedelic hallucinations, physically fighting death with little of what is left of your mind.

Mastered by Fear Falls Burning

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