About Fishtank Ensemble

WHAT DO THEY SOUND LIKE?

Click for larger image.
Watercolor painting of the band by Dax Tran-Caffee.

Fishtank Ensemble offers a unique musical experience--and a rollicking good time! From the smokey cafes of Bucharest to the Gypsy caravans of yesterday, this band evokes the spirit of a past age and the sounds of tomorrow.

Their first full-length CD was released in November 2005. Sound clips are available here.

Fishtank Ensemble offers a unique blend of up-tempo Gypsy, Balkan and klezmer tunes and original compositions. The arrangements are always surprising, and include instruments from many countries, such as the Japanese shamisen. (For more on this, check out the Instruments page.)

The Gypsy violin of Fabrice Martinez is the backbone of the sound, and has to be heard to be believed.

The band also features the voice of the talented and beautiful Ursula Knudsen, "The Swedish Nightingale" (or is that Jenny Lind?), who when she isn't playing the saw or violin, sings everything from cabaret to art song. There is nothing ordinary about this band!

To book Fishtank Ensemble, please go to the Contact page. Several members of the band also have solo acts (see the Links page), so they can provide a full evening of varied entertainment if desired.

--The Webmaster

A Bit of Background Fishtank Ensemble is a lively and unusual ensemble consisting of violin, saw, accordion, shamisen, flamenco guitar, bass, percussion and voice. Rumanian folk music forms the bulk of the material, with a healthy helping of Flamenco, Swedish folk music, Klezmer, other folk sources and original songs. Audience reaction to our hastily formed ensemble been extremely positive.

Fishtank formed around the arrival in our midst of the gifted young fiddler Fabrice Martinez. Originally from France, he has spent the last seven years traveling around Europe in a mule-drawn caravan learning and playing folk music with the ensemble "Croque Mule." Much of that time was spent living in Rumania, often in Romani (Gypsy) villages. But almost as soon as Fabrice came, he went back to his mule-drawn caravan in Europe. One thing which has amazed us and our audiences is how quickly we were able to bring the music to its present level. The only explanation is that we were each accomplished enough on our instruments playing other related folk styles that we each understood what to do. But then perhaps an occurrence of this kind can't really be explained... (From a band press newsletter, June 11, 2004. Used by permission.)

The Musicians

Fabrice Martinez - violin and violintromba
Ursula Knudsen - saw, voice, violin and banjulele
Kevin Kmetz - shamisen
Aaron Seeman - accordian
Douglas Smolens - guitar
Tim Smolens - double bass
Adam Stacey - percussion

(Glenn Allen played bass on the recent 2005 West Coast tour.)

	Fabrice Martinez (Violin and Violintromba): Fabrice is a gifted fiddler who travels Europe in a mule-drawn caravan collecting and playing folk music with the group Croque Mule. Originally from France before living in the caravan, his special love is Romanian folk music. He also plays Gypsy, Hungarian, Swedish, and many other kinds of music.
	Ursula Knudsen (Saw, Voice, and Violin): Also traveling with the Croque Mule caravan, she is classically trained in voice and violin. Self-taught on the saw, she won 2nd place in the 2004 International Saw Festival. She sings beautifully in Romanian, French, Japanese, and sometimes even in English, her native tongue.
	Kevin Masaya Kmetz (Shamisen): Raised in Northern Japan, Kevin became the first foreigner to win the prestigious Hirosaki Shamisen Championship tournament in May, 2005. In addition to his award-winning Tsuguru-style shamisen music, Kevin has pioneered playing Gypsy, Romanian and rock styles on the shamisen. Currently he leads the progressive rock quartet God of Shamisen, and plays in Estradasphere, Secret Chiefs 3, and the Watsonville Taiko Dojo. As a guitarist, Kevin was a founding member of the J.S. Bach Experience (which played Bach compositions in note-for-note renditions), and was featured in the December 1991 issue of Guitar Player magazine.
	Aaron Seeman (Accordion): Also plays solo as Duckmandu and is a founding member, arranger, and vocalist for the Punk Rock Orchestra. On accordion he plays Klezmer, Punk Rock, 70's Rock, classical, Broadway songs, and sometimes even a polka or two. In 2005 he completed the solo accordion Punk Rock album Fresh Duck for Rotting Accordionists.
	Douglas Smolens (Guitar) Doug is an accomplished Flamenco guitarist performing as "El Douje" with a recently released Flamenco fusion CD entitled Worlds Collide.
	Tim Smolens (Double Bass): Producer and bass player for the bands Estradasphere and ISS lends his amazing talent to the low end. As Fabrice says, "Double Bass, triple money!"
	Adam Stacey (Percussion): Rounding out the roster is Adam Stacey, who also plays keyboard and accordian (e.g., in Estradasphere). In Fishtank Ensemble, his versatile beat is like the paprika in the goulosh--not loud but hot!
Appearing on the recent 2005 West Coast tour:
	Glenn Allen (Double bass and other strings) Multi-instrumentalist, Circus Performer, (juggler, stilt walker, fire eater, sideshow attraction, puppeteer clown). In addition to bass, plays mandolin, harp, guitar, banjo, and sings.

The band is based in Oakland and Santa Cruz, California. For more information, please check out these resources:

• On-Line Press Kit
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• CDs and Sound Clips
• World Map of fan locations

About This Website

This is the official band home page.

Suggestions and corrections are welcome. Please click here to contact the Webmaster.

Most of the content on this site was originally used on a fan site (see links page) started by the Webmaster. It is used here by permission.

This site is best viewed with ANY web browser from ANY operating system. It looks best if your display is configured for 1024 x 768 resolution and at least 16-bit color (in 256 color, the background will look grey instead of blue-green). It also supports text-based web-browsers such as Lynx.

For maximum compatibility and speed, this web site is written entirely in HTML with minimal scripting and no frames or plug-ins. It does not use Javascript, Java, ActiveX, or Shockwave, and has only on page (the Polls) in PHP. Since the goal is communication, it only uses those features that are necessary and that are likely to be supported by all browsers and all operating systems. The goal of this web design is to be fast and accurate, just like Fishtank's playing!

This site is updated as time permits--more frequently when Fishtank is on tour.. The Webmaster apologizes for any inconvenience the inevitable delays in updating may cause.

Two pages of this site, "News" and "Shows", are available as a news feed (in RSS version 0.91 format):
News: http://www.fishtankensemble.com/news.rss
Shows: http://www.fishtankensemble.com/shows.rss