textura is best known for its impressive online web site offering fresh reviews and insights into some of the finest experimental music currently available.

Little is known, however, about the textura label that sees its second full release waiting in line from Montreal’s Mains de Givre…

‘Esther Marie’ manages to assemble and capture everything that I look for in experimental/abstract recordings, from the haunting violin structures that Émilie Livernois-Desroches so effortlessly orchestrates through to the droned-out feedback of Eric Quach’s electric guitar.

The excursion of sound that you are invited to travel and investigate has a rather dark and eerie feel to it, mainly due to Quach’s effects of processing harsh grainy synthesis patterns and distorted riff chords that are both compelling and also at times deeply atmospheric in the darkest sense of the word.

The classically trained stringed arrangements that flow from Émilie’s violin are the perfect partner, however, as graceful patterns fuse together flawlessly creating a deep sense of hope and light cutting through the impending gloom. This is what makes the whole ‘Esther Marie’ experience so intoxicating, and provides the listener with a great depth of resonating experiences not like anything I have heard or witnessed for some time.

Released in May, ‘Esther Marie’ is unquestionably going to be a successful release and will bring Mains de Givre the accolades and recognition they so richly deserve. 9/10 – Review by Dan Crossley

About the project:

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 (formerly 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, as he generates dark, slowly evolving drone atmospheres alongside subtle, looped-based patterns that swirl within the lower end of the sound spectrum.

www.myspace.com/mainsdegivre
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