Dec 3, 2004 - "[Fishtank are] really great musicians who sound surprisingly natural together when you consider their different subspecialties: flamenco, Japanese folk, klezmer, Romanian wedding music, and so on. [Kevin] Kmetz, accordionist Aaron Seeman, and flamenco guitarist Doug Smolens are virtuoso players with the good sense not to beat us over the head. The fact that you're hearing shamisen, accordion, and flamenco guitar together doesn't even consciously register most of the time, which is subtly kind of amazing. When was the last time you heard a shamisen and an accordion together?...

"Even so, the stars of this band are Fabrice Martinez, a French-born violinist, and his wife, Swedish vocalist, violinist, and musical saw-magician Ursula Knudsen. (In keeping with the band's multi-kulti globe-trotting tendencies, the couple recently moved to Italy.) "Not only is Knudsen the best musical saw player I've had the chance to witness (granted, there's not much competition), but she also sings with opera-worthy finesse and makes insanely difficult passages -- singing at breakneck tempos in a foreign language in 7/16 time -- seem effortless. She's cool. Martinez, who reportedly spent seven years traveling around Europe in a horse-drawn wagon learning songs, is a master at the sort of feverish Romanian folk tunes that bands such as Taraf de Haidouks are famous for.

"Their collective talents aside, the best things to be said about the Fishtank Ensemble are that they sound like a real band, not a hastily thrown together supergroup, and they avoid turning their sound into a cheap world-music showcase...Their repertoire flows naturally from flamenco to klezmer to Romanian and Hungarian folk and beyond. There's no catch here and nothing conceptual at work...It's just great music played by great musicians..."

--Will York, in "Local Live" column

Euro Fish: When in Rom, Fiddle
(Published Wednesday, November 23, 2005)

SAT 11/26 -- One dull gray November afternoon during rush hour, the wild sounds coming from the Ashby BART station made it seem as if the commuters had suddenly gone into a time warp and been deposited at a campsite outside Zagreb. Gypsy violins swirled over the rhythmic pumping of an accordion, a man sat playing a Django-Reinhardt guitar, and a dark-haired, haunted-looking young woman sang a the mournful tune, Survivors no doubt a song of lost love. A couple of women began to dance. Passersby tossed money into the open instrument case. A few listeners gathered, among them a small mustachioed man with a contented smile on his face. Finally one of the musicians spoke: "Hello, everybody. We're Fishtank."

East Bay has nurtured numerous Eastern European ethnic music groups and has hosted still more, but very few local klezmer-Balkan-Gypsy dance bands have the credentials of this Oakland-Santa Cruz-based ensemble. When he isn't slashing bowstrings with Fishtank, French-born violinist Fabrice Martinez travels Europe in a mule caravan alongside fellow Fishtank fiddler Ursula Knudsen, who also doubles on musical saw and sings in a variety of languages. Kevin Kmetz, who grew up in northern Japan, plays shamisen (three-stringed lute) not only on the band's traditional Japanese numbers but also in a Romanian context -- he makes it sound like a tsimbalom. Accordionist Aaron Seeman (also of Punk Rock Orchestra and Duckmandu) enjoys mixing klezmer with Rossini opera, while guitarist Doug Smolens and bassist Glenn Allen veer off frequently into flamenco.

They first got together in 2003 at an Oakland warehouse performance space with fishtank graphics on the wall behind the stage, and the name stuck. It's your basic Euro-boondocks folkish cafe entertainment, with a string section that will make you spill your slivovitz.

Fishtank's West Coast tour, which brings the band to Mama Buzz Cafe & Gallery in Oakland (2318 Telegraph Ave.) Saturday night (7 p.m., $5) on its way to SF, Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles, is all about its new CD, Super Raoul. Learn more at FishtankEnsemble.com.

--Kelly Vance, in "Scenes" column

FISHTANK ENSEMBLE - "Super Raoul"
self-released, 2005

WORLD MIX - Here's a fun Bay Area outfit, starting from a Romanian folk-music base but throwing in a Japanese shamisen, Flamenco guitar, musical saw, and near-operatic vocals, while drawing from Klezmer, Swedish music, and Gypsy swing. And get this: the band had only been together for 3 weeks when they made this record! But you'd never guess it. Wacky and whimsical, kind of like 3 Mustaphas 3 only without the mythology or slapstick.

Fo's Picks: 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12

1. Bordeas (6:55) - upbeat, slashing rhythm, strong fem vocal, solos for fiddle, shamisen

2. Itty Bitty Snitty Little Frenchman (3:44) - cafi instrumental led by accordion & saw, cinematic & memorable

3. Papirosn (3:02) - a workout: fast chugging rhythm, good ensemble play

4. Troll Wedding (6:37) - band intros, then a relaxed, bluesy sort of folk tune (turns fast later on!)

5. Pegasus Valuters (3:32) - extra-bouncy ditty, slows down in middle, then spins into outer space!

6. Ringo Bushi (2:50) - midtempo: just shamisen and Balkanized Japanese vocal

7. Arabu Andaluz (4:36) - desert flamenco: slashing melody, fine guitar solo, wordless vocal tricks

8. Hora di Bucharest (6:48) - medley of bouncy uptempo dances, plenty of top-notch fiddle action

9. Le Kidnappeur (6:21) - odd: ballad intro, then flamenco energy; guitar, fiddle, shamisen trade off

10. Hopa di Bida (4:09) - bouncy folk melody with fem vocal draped on top

11. The Last Shamisen Master (4:38) - shamisen in front, moves through classical, folk, and rock phases

12. Suite Romaine (4:41) - violin showcase: slow set-up, then a frantic chase!

13. Doina Sonnambule (4:49) - violin weaves in, out, and around a steady loping rhythm

[Fo] - 1/28/06       Link to original review

FISHTANK ENSEMBLE can be quirkily described as Gypsy influenced with Swedish, Flamenco, And Klezmer influence. Chew on that for a while, but you won't even begin to comprehend exactly what that is until you hear it, and you Must hear this. It has all of the passion of Eastern Europe, the Rom, and a wee bit of Swedish thrown in for a dash of flavor. Fishtank Ensemble is why we keep doing our Show. The musical surprises get better and better.

-- Mike Perazzetti, host of RadioMike's New Show Link to original review