Machine Consciousness, Phase III

thisquietarmy x Away is the collaborative sci-fi drone metal duo project comprised of guitarist Eric Quach (Thisquietarmy) and drummer Michel "Away" Langevin of Canadian metal legends Voïvod. The unlikely duo crossed paths in their hometown of Montreal, when they both performed respective solo sets at the Drone Activity In Progress event curated by Red Bull Music Academy in 2016 and at Suoni Per Il Popolo festival in 2018.

Following an impromptu live collaboration during the latter, a single-day recording session was planned at Méduse Audio in the winter of 2019. The resulting crème de la crème, “The Singularity, Phase I & II”, ranging from heavy slow-building metal to blissfully dreamy soundscapes, was released as a double album as two single deluxe vinyl LPs via P572 and on 2CD & 2CS via Consouling Sounds & Utech Records through 2020 & 2021.

This unexpected 3rd installment of the duo's output is still made up from material recorded during that same 2019 session, which needed a little more work than its almost-straight-out-of-the-box double album predecessor. With additional bass and brass tracks provided by Charles Bussières and Reüel Ordoñez, members of TQA's live full-band (along with sound engineer, drummer and synth player Marc-Olivier Germain) for the “The Body and the Earth” 2018 EU tour, Quach could finally piece the remnants of the tracks together as a bold and unexpected collection of psychedelic fusion and freakout music, with elements of kosmische Musik, prog and experimental free jazz mixed into the duo's enthralling brand of space-rock improvisation.

For that reason, this new output conjured an identity of its own as “Machine Consciousness, Phase III”, both as the follow-up to THISQUIETARMY X AWAY's “The Singularity, Phase I & II” but also to the last TQA full-band opus “The Body and the Earth”.