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The Ebb & Flow are now working with Satellite Booking.
Though retrofit and stabilized on the surface, San Francisco churns and shifts on rivers of lava underneath. The Ebb & Flow bring the tense balance of these tectonic shifts to the surface through an aural montage that unites kraut-rock, 70's prog, soul, post-rock, jazz and synth-pop. They channel the sounds of the future through the organic, analog instruments of the past. If Sun Ra, Wendy Carlos, Neil Young, & Can had one musical offspring, it would be called The Ebb & Flow.
Sam Tsitrin (high school dropout, gourmet vegetarian line-cook, engineering student, absurdist poet, Russian- emigre), like many Soviet-reared children, learned at a young age that alienation from one's labor was the inevitable experience of the worker. When he heard that Sara Cassetti (catastrophe waitress, socio-linguist, musical encyclopedia, Kate Bush fanatic), the new server at the restaurant where he was pantry boy, was an accomplished drummer-without-a-band, he swooped down with his musical proposal. Together they would soon work to stave off alienation from their labor and devote themselves to a musical labor of love.
Sara explained that she and her longtime companion and keyboardist Roshy Kheshti (Ph. D. Berkely professor, Iranian-emigre, Rock-n-Roll Spelling Bee Champ) were in search of something fresh and new. After one rehearsal in January of 2001, the odd threesome fused immediately as their individual eccentricities merged into a bricolage of genres, genders and musical geometrics. Immediately, a sound was born and the three became the trio of The Ebb & Flow. Sara and Roshy had been playing together since college in the infamous Bloomington, Indiana scene, Sara in the influential DIY basement outfit Sway Kiss and later with Roshy in the break-beat-jazz-core band Au Naturalette. Sam had evolved into an aloof-but-tasteful guitarist performing in San Francisco bands Orpheus, Yell and Go Van Gough. But none had experienced the cathartic release that The Ebb & Flow would make possible for them.
The Sound: Roshy's arsenal of Moog synthesizers and Farfisa organ chirp and swell alongside Sam's cubist telecaster hooks and dissonant harmonies. Sara's '68 Slingerland jazz kit marches with the deep groove of the Farfisa pedals creating the solid foundation for the Ebb & Flow's songs. Lyricists Roshy and Sam take turns at the mic bringing a level of stylistic variation to the repertoire. The sound is like three records being played at once, perfectly in phase, in symbiotic meter and timbre, but each with their own logic and intent. The result is organic, dynamic, polyphonic bliss.
The band has earned a name for itself in San Francisco, playing with bands such as Devotchka, Electrelane, Gogol Bordello, Firewater, The Radar Brothers, Rogue Wave, Archer Prewitt, Viva Voce, Tussle, The M's, Crime in Choir, Citizens Here and Abroad, and at the Fillmore Lounge with Stereolab and Modest Mouse. Over the past few years, they have performed throughout the west coast, and at various festivals such as the 2003-2005 Mission Creek Festivals, the 2005 Noise Pop Festival, the 2005 Music NW Festival, and the 2005 CMJ Music Marathon, in addition to several national tours.
In July of 2005, Three Ring Records released The Ebb and Flow's first full-length album, Time To Echolocate, recorded with accomplished Bay Area engineer Aaron Prellwitz (Sun Kil Moon, Erase Errata, Caesura, Bratmobile, Time in Malta, Cex, Hella, On the Speakers). Highlights from the album include the epic, two-part, 10 minute opener "Sonorous" and a closing track with cameo appearances by the legendary Bob Moog speaking on analog sound.
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