The new CD from the orchestra is in post production.It is called If I Had a Hi-Fi.It contains several new musical directions for the fish including songs in spanish and japanese, new instrumentation such as theremin, water organ and qanun, covers of Eric Satie and Sun Ra and of course the usual scottish/arabic miniatures for which the band is renowned.The album will be available initially on CD on NohBo records.
A side project from the Fish Orchestra is The Bewitched. It is a duo consisting of orchestra members astral gonad and makmed the miller. It is an ethno/electonica concoction featuring samples, loops and various instruments such as singing saw, qanun, theremin, cello, pipa, bazouki and percussion.The music is often played live to accompany the projection of films. Please checkout the website www.whatwitch.com. The Bewitched have a new CD of the same name.
The orchestra will be playing a series of shows in the beautiful old monument De Waag at the centre of the old city of Amsterdam. De Waag is a historical building which was used in olden times for autopsies and anatomy lessons. The name of the event is "Museum of Unrelated Things?" and it will take place on Thursday 26 May. There will be seven shows of twenty minutes each. Each show will be different. Audience will be invited and very limited number. However we are hoping that it will be live-streamed on the web address of De Waag Society.
Our latest recorded output is limited edition on vinyl of our mini rap album "Saouiri Fugitive meets Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra". This will shortly be available on MonkeyTool, a subsidiary of Toolbox Records. Watch this space.
After our prize-winning show at last years Pula Theatre Festival, Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra has taken a half year break. We have completed about 30 new and different shows in the last three and a half years and needed this break to recharge our batteries and refocus our intent. This break has resulted in personnel changes in the band and we are now happy to announce the addition of four new band members. Reiku Garotte on accordion, harmonium and xylophone. Abarth Emento on banjo, percussion and classical guitar. Jack Greenbark on violin. Eskimo Mosk on Flute, trumpet, piccolo and body language.
Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra has been invited to play at the PuF Festival in Pula, Croatia. This event takes place from the 1st - 5th July, 2004. The orchestra hope to play a series of small intimate concerts at the opening of the festival and a large show at the end of the five days. (t.b.c.)
On April 18th 2004 in Paradiso Amsterdam, the Fishes will be presenting a performance called "Ukiyo - The Floating World". Ukiyo - from the word uki (waves) - is a term describing the demi-mond, a place on the periphery of the society where all sorts of subcultures and underworlds blossomed...... cabaret, music halls, prostitution. It was from this floating world that kabuki theatre originated.
In January, some members of the orchestra performed in Cairo with the Nubian singer and oud player Ahmed Salie. Since playing this concert a further collaberation is underway and the resulting music is now being worked upon at the Fish Tank, to be included on the next CD, provisionally planned early 2005.
The orchestra is currently involved in a film project. The name of the film is, “The Secret Eyes of Karlo Rojc”. It features two pieces of music by the Forgotten Fish, “Hu Dy Da” and “Entrance of the Crocodiles”, and also includes live footage from their performance, “The Dome of Shang”. The film is produced by Pete Charlton, a member of Silo Theatre. It will soon be available for purchase on DVD. For more information contact the Silo Theater
The Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra has recently added a new member to the ensemble. Elven Kaban, whose background is Eastern Europe / Mayan, plays contrabass and percussion. Together we are eating baklava and beginning work on our fourth CD.
Our new CD will be available in June 03. The album will be called 'The Bicycle Lesson' and contains fifteen brand new tracks incorporating the usual wide variety of styles and genres and including field recordings from Morocco and China. Also on this CD you will find fishy versions of 9th Century Gagaku music, Portuguese Fado, experimental soundscapes, Arabic rap, a piece from Prokovief, an Anatolian farmers classic, Chinese Zydeco and much much more.
Our first CD 'Iron Shoes' was also brought out in a remixed version called 'Our Tin Tribe'. This rare remix album is now available again on vinyl in a 500 limited edition on Toolbox Records. For information check their website. We would like to bring out some future recordings in shellac format to be played on wind-up gramophones. If you have information about how we might go about this please email us.
We have strengthened our playing squad by adding a new violinist, Idea van Verdi. She made her debut with the fishes in our recent Peking Opera performance at the Rotterdam film festival in January. Although she joined when we had already recorded most of the new CD she was just in time to play on one old Chinese tune and a Japanese sleeping song.
The Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra will be playing in Gdansk Poland on saturday June 21 as part of a festival of avant garde and ethnic music in the beautiful St John's Church in the centre of the city. It is also expected that we will play in Berlin on June 24 but details are still to be confirmed.
As a spin-off from the recording of the new CD 'The Bicycle Lesson', there will be a four track mini CD also coming out called 'Interpol'. The four tracks on this CD are a result of the collaboration between the fishes and the Arabic rapper Souairi Fugitive, who lives in the delightful town of Essaouira in Morocco. Watch this space for more details.
We would like to thank the following photographers whose work we have used on this website.
* Luc DeNijs
* Fran Ex
* Alleblas/Plamper
* Kirian
* Bas Coenegracht
* Nox
Please feel free to email the fishes with any questions you may have...