Fabrice Martinez - violin and violintrombaFabrice 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.
Ususla Knudsen - saw, voice, violin and banjulele
Kevin Kmetz - shamisen
Aaron Seeman - accordian
Douglas Smolens - flamenco guitar
Tim Smolens - double bass, other strings
Adam Stacey - percussion
(Bassist Glenn Allen appeared on the recent 2005 West Coast tour.)
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. Tim also works as a composer of music for video games. 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!