Fishtank Ensemble

One of the most thrilling acts on the planet!

Los Angeles’ Fishtank Ensemble will perform in the KAFM Radio Room on Thursday, July 29 at 8 pm.   This is a band that sounds like no one you have heard before.  Be prepared for a totally unique experience.

THE LA WEEKLY calls them “cross-pollinated gypsy music….one of the most thrilling young acts on the planet.” Formed in 2005 and playing everywhere from the hippest LA clubs to festivals, cultural centers, museums, parades and even on the street, the band includes two explosive violins, the world's best slap bass player, musical saw, flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar, trombone, opera, jazz and gypsy vocals, accordion and one little banjolele. Tackling everything from French hot jazz to wild Serbian and Transylvanian gypsy anthems, Flamenco, and oddball originals, the band is a not-to-be-missed event for world music lovers...and everyone will love this intoxicating mix of music!

Fabrice Martinez plays Gypsy violin and violintromba and is a gifted fiddler who traveled Europe in a mule-drawn caravan collecting and playing folk music with the group Croque Mule for ten years. Originally from France before living in the caravan, he has lived in Italy, Hungary, Romania and now the United States, collecting and mastering music from each region.

 The vocalist Ursula Knudson also plays musical saw, percussion, banjolele and violin.   Knudson lived in Italy for the past two years, where she sang opera on the streets and in the town squares. Self-taught on the saw, she won second place in the 2004 International Saw Festival.  Knudsen sings beautifully in Romanian, Romanes, Rom, (yes, three different languages!) French, Italian, Serbian, Japanese and sometimes even in English, which is her native tongue.

Doug Smolens is an accomplished Flamenco and Gypsy jazz guitarist and recently performed as El Douje in the Flamenco fusion CD entitled WORLDS COLLIDE.  In addition to Fishtank Ensemble and his solo flamenco guitar work, Smolens performs as half of the comedy pop/rock duo Foxycock.

Djordje Stijepovic play slap bass guaranteed to bring the house down. Stijepovic was a member of leading world music bands in Serbia like Shira Utfila (Sephardic), Kal (Balkan gypsy) and Marsya (Balkan). Stijepovic finished classical music conservatory for jazz arrangement and bass. In addition to playing solo, Djordje also provides his signature slap bass for rockabilly band Atomic Sunset, Deke Dickerson, Slim Jim Phantom (from Stray Cats), Lemmy (from Motorhead) and plays with other bluegrass, cajun, jazz and blues bands.

Fishtank Ensemble attribute their unique sound to influences of Gypsy wedding music, Django Reinhardt, Mozart, Taraf De Haidouks, Kurt Weill, Paco de Lucia, the Rosenberg Family, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Camaron de la Isla, Ennio Morricone, Nappy Cash, Farmers Market, Raymond Scott, the Dead Kennedys, Astor Piazzola, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Opa Opa, Birelli Legren, Gerardo Nuñez, Tom Waits, Sam Cooke, Kocani Orkestar, Gogol Bordello, Huun-Huur-Tu, Yuri Yunakov, Balkan and Eastern European Gypsy music and Warsaw Village Band.  The result?  Fishtank Ensemble sounds like no one you have heard before.

“Saturday night at BAM Cafe, Bay area gypsy music innovators Fishtank Ensemble brought the intensity to redline in seconds flat and kept it there for the duration of the show. Their CD SAMURAI OVER SERBIA (which received a rave review and a spot on our 50 best albums of 2009 list) more than hinted that this would be the case, and the five-piece group didn’t disappoint.” -- LUCID CULTURE

”The whimsical name of the group belies the fact that these musicians play hard, fast, and serious. There’s nothing fishy about them.” -- Joel Okida, FOLK WORKS

"Fishtank Ensemble, with opener Luminescent Orchestrii was one of the best shows of the year, hands down., and the five-piece group didn’t disappoint.” -- THE DAILY PAGE, Madison, Wisconsin 

To read more about this exciting band or to hear them on line visit their MySpace page.

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