Artist description "Analog hippie meets digital space" describes Dane Carlson of Expose Magazine. "The new spacerock star" raves Francois Coutere of the avant garde radio show, Delire Musical. Cuneiform Record/Wayside music calls them "one of the best American spacerock bands. Combining songs, short and epic, with a communal knack for improv rarely seen in music, quarkspace rules the mystic galaxy

Music Style Micro-brewed ambient spacerock stew!

Musical Influences Gong, Soft Machine, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, The Orb, Orbital, FSOL

Similar Artists Pink Floyd, Tortoise, The Orb, Gong

Artist History quarkspace was formed in 1984 and was originally called Quark! "Space" was added later to stave off any potential lawsuits by a certain software company. College classmates - Jay Swanson on keys, and Kevin Wherry on bass were joined by the brother of a classmate - Darren Gough (guitar). They proceeded to work on cover material, planning to play frat parties and local bars. Fledgling singer-songwriter Chet Santia soon joined along with Darren's classmate, Paul Williams on drums. Whilst slaving over cover tunes by Zappa, Camel, Neil Young, Talking Heads, etc., plus a few originals - a knack for communal space jams became apparent. They spent 1985 playing those frat parties and local bars, along with some legendary parties at the home of a few band members and hippies called "The Hidden Moon".Paul and Chet both left in early 1986 to concentrate on school. The other members continued for about a year with another singer and a couple of drummers before Quark! went dormant for a period. In the interim, Jay released a couple of cassettes of homespun keyboard music. Paul played in a few bands (including the legendary New Druids) and released an ambient space solstice-music cassette. Dave Wexler had spent several years writing songs and playing guitar in bands along the west coast before meeting Paul in 1991. Quarkspace released it’s first CD in 1996 with Dave (and others) appearing as a guest. By the time spacefolds 2 was released, Dave became the newest member of the band. Since then quarkspace has done several successful live performances, released their live CD "Live Orion" and is working on their next studio double CD for release by the summer of 1999, with more spacefolds CDs planned for release along the way.

Group Members Chet Santia: Bass, Vox, GuitarsJay Swanson: KeyboardsDave Wexler: GuitarsPaul Williams: Drums, Keyboards, Loops, SamplesDarren Gough: Guitar

Instruments Korg Prophecy and Roland JP-8000 lead a full assault of analog and digital toyz

Albums The Hidden Moon, Live Orion, self-titled debut, Spacefolds series

Press Reviews June 17th 1998This week's discoveryQUARKSPACE / Live Orion (1998, Eternity's Jest Records)Quarkspace. Remember that name. Remember it well. Because today's space rock music conjugates with Quarkspace. If bands like Ozric Tentacles and Porcupine Tree gave back this musical genre its crown, Quarkspace will soon eclipse them.Quarkspace is Chet Santia on bass and vocals (very ethereal : is he singing or just breathing?), Jay Swanson on keyboards, Dave Wexler and Darren Gough on guitars and Paul Williams on drums. The band records since 1996. First, four cassette releases in 1996 and 1997 under the title Spacefolds which present studio improvisations. Then, in 1996, an eponymous CD, this time focusing on shorter songs. Both projects were very promising and Quarkspace definitely earned their place among the American space rock newcomers like Alien Planetscapes and Architectural Metaphor.But today Quarkspace rises above all of them and shines. The new space rock star. Live Orion has been recorded live in October 1997 at the Orion Space Rock Festival (for all but one track). The album showcases Quarkspace at their best, in mindblowing shape and in all their diversity. The CD contains live versions of some of the songs on their first CD, revisited and far better than the original versions (like " Air " and " In My Lost Mind "), new songs, space improvisations (of course!) and even some improvs released in the Spacefolds series that the guys learned and transformed (such as the beautiful " Faerienot Space "). Over an hour of a magic and trippy space rock. Quarkspace cooks an ethereal music, smooth, all in textures and moods, nothing like the twirling rhythms of Ozric Tentacles. A gentle piano, a tiptoed bass line, some guitar licks. A perfect sound. Pure pleasure. Sit back, relax, enjoy.Quarkspace records can be purchased by writing to :Eternity's Jest Records1487 W. Fifth Ave. Suite 212Columbus, OH 43212email : ejestrecs@aol.com

Additional Info spacefolds series, t-shirts

Location Columbus, OH - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).