Mix Cover: Artwork for ‘Serpents and Shallows’, the collaborative album by thisquietarmy (Eric Quach) & otay:onii (Lane Shi), released last November 2025.
Banner Image: Eric playing live 2022 (pic. Shankrasonic)

It all starts with thisquietarmy’s recording going by the name “Les estampes”. Released digitally and as a cassette (by BC-label Coup sur Coup Records on 25.05.2024, now sold out) it contains improvised soundscape sketches in limbo that were recorded in the jam space during the pandemic. It was rushed to completion in anticipation for its Canadian summer tour June/July 2024, with Eastern Canada dates with the likes of Drowse (The Flenser) and Locrian (Profound Lore). That in itself is valuable information. But before the music I focused on the cover.

I first got in touch with Eric days after this release (nearly 2 years ago…). I emailed to tell him I had shared the video for the track ‘Funiculaire‘ to my brand’s media page a couple of days ago. I told Eric “I Love the fact that it was shot in Viana do Castelo, one of my favourite towns in the North of Portugal where I live.” Eric replied with “Yes it was quite a surreal day that day, no one in sight… it was great for filming. It happened by chance of course, I was glad for the fog.” Eric played in Viana do Castelo (at the Cave Avenida, as well as in Porto and Lisbon) back in 2018, promoting two albums he had released in 2017: Métamorphose and Democracy Of Dust.

Viana do Castelo is a beautiful city, 50 kms away from my residence in Portugal and a typical coastal town, bathed by the Lima River to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It’s mostly sunny in Portugal but the northern winters do offer these foggy days which can last for many hours, specially because of the geography (plenty of water but also elevated terrain with large density of trees), and in winter days, with the dawn arriving at 5pm, its specially haunting near old villages or churches. The cover in ‘Les estampes’ features the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Mount of Santa Luzia, a key landmark of the city and region.

And there you have it, a meeting of minds over the artwork of an album and an iconic centenary church in the North of Portugal, shot some 8 years ago… we kept emailing back and forth until last November 2025, around the time of the release of the album ‘Serpents and Shallows‘ in collaboration with with Otay:onii (and ‘Howl and Tell‘ a few months earlier) and their subsequent European tour in December 2025, taking them to Germany, France and Belgium for 9 dates.

In between this time we spoke about shoes, making Eric a comfy pair of bespoke converse-style sneakers (coming soon) and this playlist of 15 tracks selected by Eric for our 4th guest mix (after Sutekh Hexen, Hiverlucide and Giulio Aldinucci).

Its a collection of music I am actually quite familiar but with a few surprises. There’s a good number of shoegaze tracks by popular bands such as Slowdive and Lush, pretty mandatory for a 80’s kid that grew up to make music as thisquietarmy, and it was great to see the inclusion of the underrated Southpacific (I was a huge fan of Constance back when it was out, and I wished they had put out more music… I did this mix a while back with another cool track from Constance) which with Loveliescrushing works as a nice bridge to the amplified energy of Aluk Todolo and Boris (what can I say, two personal favourites right here!).

Now for the some unexpected vibes in the selection, its not all doom and gloom and one of the surprises comes from Tempête Solaire, which is a new band in which Eric takes part and plays with another Eric and a Elyze (Eric Craven – drums and Elyze Venne-Deshaies – sax). The TS track starts a different vibe in the mix, like Eric tells me back in November: “I was busy with my new band Tempête Solaire, we had a few summer shows to focus on as well as the recording of a new EP. It’s quite a step away from TQA as I play a special kind of bass, still with all my effects, but my sound is different and the vibe is different. But I’m enjoying it thoroughly as it’s been 20 years of TQA and TS is a fresh take on music making for me… I’ve been wanting to include African desert blues stuff like Etran de l’Aïr or things like that… but also Southpacific an old Ottawa band from 25 years ago who just played their first shows in 20 years last weekend with us.”

Great new music to discover from Horse Lords onwards until the mix closes in known territory, with the newest track of the lot taken from Eric’s latest collaboration with the on-demand Chinese singer Lane Shi Otayonii, based currently in Berlin, who’s developing her own music project otay:onii.

You can listen to a selection of Eric’s music as thisquietarmy in past mixes: mix #34, mix #43 and mix #50.

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