‘The Fishtank,’ a night of improvised, musical collaboration 

Cora Perkins, Assistant Spectrum Editor

Studio Two Three recently became the newest host on Friday for “The Fishtank Improvised Sounds Night,” an event full of music and collaboration.

“The Fishtank” name is an homage to a series of EPs produced by Dutch independent label Konkurrent, titled “In the Fishtank,” according to event organizer Alan Biller. 

“It’s a reference to the series of recordings that were done in the late ‘90s through maybe 2013,” Biller said. “Where they would take two or three bands or solo acts, and then they would put them in a studio for a few days and they would record an album together.”

Similar to the recordings, “The Fishtank” focuses on creating a space for improvisation and collaboration, according to Biller. 

“It’s the idea of taking three people from separate, different musical communities and putting them together to create something without a lot of foresight,” Biller said. “I mean, that’s largely what improvised sound, improvised music is about, throwing yourself into something and just creating it without thinking what it is that I’m trying to do. Not trying to make it be something in advance, just being in the moment to create something.” 

The event is free to all. Although the hosts request a $10 donation, no one is turned away from experiencing the music. 

The event’s mission is to give more representation to musicians of all styles and help expand artists’ palettes, according to Biller. 

“I’m trying to go for representation among folks with different musical backgrounds, but I’m also trying to go for other forms of representation,” Biller said. “If you are playing with musicians who you’ve never played with before, who create a type of sound that you’ve never interacted with before, it’s likely to — at least in the moment — expand your sonic palette.”

The improvisational performances came together nicely, according to Rinatt Montoya, a full-time musician and curator for the event. 

“It was a cool experience to have that instrumentation, guitar, trumpet and electronics just because they’re all so different from each other,” Montoya said. 

The experience encourages music experimentation, according to Joshua Brown, a performer at the event. 

“For this, I kind of had to come up with something I usually don’t do solo because I had to later fit into the trio. So it kind of encourages me to try something else,” Brown said. 

The next “Fishtank” night is not currently dated, but Biller hopes it can continue to be held at Studio Two Three.