Ah No Bo Records 
Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra : If I had a Hi Fi (NL/HU/EG,2007)****'
Back to the days where music was also entertainment, but then, when it managed to go to a general, not selective public, as a form of circus when circus still had some idea of some magic to offer ; imagine this with World music where it is presented as an exotic fantasy, as if this is nothing else but a wide imagination of a musician’s creative mind, learned from his own backgrounds of cultural heritage. During certain periods, it did not matter so much where some music forms came from, while some influences were spread and adapted, it was all part of a cultural living entity, with some natural processes or travelling musicians guiding them before they found a commission in a more selected company. Imagine this, in a new world where musicians also learned from records, or who just spontaneously interconnected, in this modern world of hi fi wonders we can permit all that very easily. Imagine this as new theatre, brought into a context of modern podium extravaganza, wild costumes and spectacular colourful stage lights. Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra on stage looks like surreal cabaret or theatre of an unknown ethnical subconscious origin, often referring a bit more to a certain period, fishing through the water of a forgotten memory of what we might have experienced before. I heard the group has some members of different origins (Egypt, Hungary,..) ; but I have no clue how or why they presented and mixed these different ethnic styles.
There are a few old Japanese traditionals used and interpreted, like “E Ma Ro Khrod”, played by different chamber, stringed & plucked instruments, as well as glockenspiel (?) and wooden block, -not from eastern origins-, including glass bowl sounds and I think a musical box. This is entirely convincing, and a rather beautiful and wonderful interpretation. This is followed by an earlier bebop-styled track from Sun Ra, played with sax, handclicks, double bass, bass clarinet, rhythmical electric guitar and such, with different sounds to the original jazz context, making this sound more like exotic jazz lounge. This is followed by a klezmer traditional, also with additional unusual instruments for it (like banjo, or some rhythmic touches), keeping the context like ‘gypsy-street-theatre-circus-exotica’. After a moody droning chamber music piece, “The Russian Farewell March” is again much more clear of its ethno-folk origins. “Sakura” is the second Japanese traditional, based upon koto, enriched with chamber arrangements, and theremin. Renewed alternation is with the rumba/mexicano “Aurora en Pekin”. “Aqool Le Tflaty” is Arab/Egyptian styled, including accordion, double bass, Egyptian percussion, clarinet,.. followed by “The Swan” on theremin and keyboards, with another Egyptian flavoured track after this, and a more melancholic eastern flavoured track, using a bit of theremin, cello/violin and a slightly more puppet-theatrical kind of vocal interpretation of what should be Japanese. Also great to hear is their chamber/slow balalaika interpretation of Satie’s “Gnossienne” called for the occasion “Gnossienne in Asia Minor”. “Fun der Khuppe dub mix” has once more Balkan influences but uses ideas that are used by World Music DJ’s, (but not exactly like him), because the double bass rhythms, and mostly the clarinet and percussive arrangements are a bit more sample-like and get a few tiny dub-like effects of echoes. The Mexican flavoured “Aurora & Pekin” theme returns in a trio version, and also the “Russian farewell” returns a last time, in a live version. “If I had a Hi Fi” makes a joke of their orchestra adding tiny little electronic mixes to it, reminding us in which century we’re living in, having even more to our exposure than record players to seduce us to travel to other cultures and adapt something of their origins, as tiny, and quickly as we can.
I assume the orchestra will manage to confuse and entertain on stage and will give us the impression we could travel like fish into the world with just a bit of imagination through their original musical theme interpretations.
1 track of the band appeared on the compilation called Post-Asiatic :
An off-shoot of the group is called "The Bewitched".
