Fresh and flirty, clever and quirky, Fishtank Ensemble’s Woman In Sin is a veritable boatload of fabulous. Building on a resume of recordings that include 2005’s Super Raoul and 2008’s Samurai Over Serbia, Fishtank Ensemble’s Woman in Sin careens headlong into a musical landscape fashioned out of gypsy tunes, swing, jazz, Flamenco and folk melodies from Romania, Serbia and Transylvania, as well as brief dips into a manouche from Holland and Kurdish folk tunes, transforming the group into an American gypsy band.
Rounding out Fishtank’s sound are Ursula Knudson on vocals, violin, banjolele and musical saw, Fabrice Martinez on violin and violintromba, Douglas “Douje” Smolens on guitars and cajon and Djordje Stijepovic on vocals and upright bass. It’s apparent from the opening strains of Woman in Sin that these musicians have earned their chops. Creating a sound that’s densely packed and tautly vibrant, Fishtank Ensemble wrings the most out of every single track. Read more…