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Quarkspace — Tales of Ancient Quark!
(Bandcamp no#, 1985/2025, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2026-03-16

Tales of Ancient Quark! Cover art

A long long time ago there were four guys playing in what was mostly a cover band, Beatles, Floyd, Camel, Zappa and more, and a few originals too. The year was 1985, and the players were keyboardist Jay Swanson, guitarists Darren Gough and Chet Santia (the former doubling on bass), and drummer Paul Williams (also playing a Mattel Synsonics on the closing track). Just to keep things in perspective, Quarkspace’s debut album wouldn’t be released for another eleven years, so this basement recording from February 6, 1985 in Dayton, Ohio in the band’s rehearsal space represents some of the band’s earliest jams; a cassette deck with stereo mics caught it all. There is plenty of room for improvement in the sound quality at this early stage, but the playing is superb and highlights the spark that would lead the band onwards to classics like The Hidden Moon, All These Suns, and Drop, and their entire Spacefolds series some fifteen years later. The set opens with “Why Won't Kevin Take Us to the Pine Club?,” a fifteen-minute improv that shows a lot of promise even if the drums sound like someone playing on cardboard boxes, all the birthing signs of Quarkspace’s future endeavors are there in abundance. Another cut, “For Us to Really Trip Out, the Space Must Be Played in D,” features some interesting spacey electronics while the rest of the band elaborates on a rocking Floydian groove. The sixteen-minute “Asteroid Belt” is led by some superb keyboard grooves (electric piano and synth) while the band wades through some funky spaces, working their way into more electronics as the piece progresses. The closer “Johnny Mattel” may only be a little over six minutes in length but makes interesting use of the Synsonics while the entire band reaches even further out. With Tales of Ancient Quark, the listener can hear the seeds of what later grew and blossomed as Quarkspace followed their collective muse.

Filed under: Archives, 2025 releases, 1985 recordings

Related artist(s): Quarkspace

More info
http://quarkspace.bandcamp.com/album/tales-of-ancient-quark

 

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