..."fueled fusion fun of the best kind, delivered without pretension and bursting with energy."
Peter Marsh, BBC Magazine
2007 Release: "THE SONG WITHIN" Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise Release Date: May 22
***** Five Stars - Reviewed by John Pritchard
The most compelling part of this excellent new album by Asaf Sirkis is the wide spectrum of sound, creative rhythm and inventive soloing present on every single track. Nothing rushed about this music. It grows and glows within your ears and I was definitely transported to a better place by this exceptional instrumental group playing their one-of-a-kind genre called "gothic jazz".
From a composer's perspective, this is Asaf and the Inner Noise at their very best! Clean, clear and free with lots of imagination. They have left their darker, more ominous roots behind and entered an entirely new area of their own creation that is very fresh, highly adventurous and sonicly optimistic. Asaf's drumming is a pure joy. Effortless technique guided by soulful intuition. High virtuosity with every on and off beat accent leading the way for soaring solos by Steve Lodder on church organ and Mike Outram on guitar. Simply exceptional music that gets better and better with each listen. Highly recommended!
All compositions by Asaf Sirkis.
Produced by Asaf Sirkis for Sam Productions.
James Griffiths has this to say about the Inner Noise live on stage:
"Audiences have been accustomed to bands experimenting with new sounds and pushing back the boundaries of contemporary music, but this trio has certainly come up with something different... Propelling the two front liners was the explosive percussion by leader Asaf, building the tension with a whole plethora of omni-directional polyrhythms with great skill."
ASAF SIRKIS: INNER THINKING ON FILM (watch below)
Asaf is interviewed by filmmaker Rowena Jeffrey-Jones for this very thoughtful short film that features his 'Inner Noise' band at Stoke Newington Church, London 2006 (Steve Lodder on Church Organ, Tassos Spiliotopoulos on Guitar and Asaf on Drums).
A UNIQUE "SOUND ART" EXPERIENCE... THE EXPERIMENTAL SIDE OF ASAF
(watch below)
Recorded in Singapore, by Asaf Sirkis and Gilad Atzmon and Simon Fisher Turner. Film by Sebastian Sharples. From Lana Lara Lata 2005.
Visit www.simonfisherturner.com
2006 Release: "We Are Falling"
City Life Magazine, October 2005
Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise have real presence, albeit a malevolent one. Sirkis is an Israeli-born drummer with enough muscle to power a thunderstorm, whilst Mike Outram, the guitarist with the Inner Noise, is an invigorating player. The dominant voice on We Are Falling (Konnex), however, is Steve Lodder's sombre church-like organ. The drama comes in the contrast between sepulchral chill (Lodder) and the forces of light (Outram), as Sirkis splinters the rhythm into jagged counter-patterns. -- Mike Butler
Musician Magazine,
Sept. 2005
Drummer Asaf Sirkis composes and arranges all the tracks on this dreamy album It is an experimental piece for a niche market, flirting with atonality and nearly-but-not-quite melodies that are skewed by unexpected twists and turns. All this to a backdrop of drums and nervous, skittering synths together with more challenging, unidentified sounds. Most intriguing.
"Asaf
Sirkis is a great young Israeli drummer who, since his arrival in
Britain in April 1999, has begun to make major waves on the British
jazz scene." Dan Somogyi
Playing at Monfalcone Festival, Italy, July 2004
Fusing
Many Styles
Asaf is an inspiring drummer and composer with a wide musical vocabulary.
As the rhythmic force behind Gilad
Atzmon's "Orient
House Ensemble," Asaf has quickly become one of
the hottest rising stars in Europe. Last year's BBC Music Award
for "Exile" as Best Jazz Album of the Year has introduced
Asaf to an even larger audience of fans via the "Orient
House Ensemble."
With his own band, "Inner
Noise," Asaf has developed a very progressive sound
that is indeed hard to put a label on. Check out the mp3 samples
above and in the right column.
"Is
it bop, rock, fusion, modern jazz or what else? It is difficult
to answer this question, as Sirkis' intense music seems to contain
elements of different kinds, nonetheless creating a style of its
own, influenced by his Middle East roots." - Juergen
Wolf
Asaf Sirkis & the Inner Noise are:
Steve Lodder- Church organ
Mike Outram- Guitar
Asaf Sirkis- Drums
Gilad
Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble
Check out Asaf's drumming on "Exile" and other recordings
by clickin on the album cover below.
Gilad
Atzmon's &
The Orient House Ensemble"
was nominated for Best Jazz Band of the Year (2004) by
the BBC .
In 2003, their album, "Exile,"
was awarded Best Jazz Album Of The Year by both the BBC and
Time Out Magazine.
"This
album is bound to make some people angry. The musicians, all exiles,
use traditional Jewish and Israeli melodies as the basis for tunes
that tell stories of Palestinian suffering. Regardless of whether
you agree with the message, it's hard to deny the beauty of the
music." - Steve Greenlee, Boston Globe
Playing with Gilad Atzmon at Nottingham
(photo by Bob Meyrick)
"Jazz in the '50s and '60s was inextricably linked to the Civil
Rights Movement in the US; and the music of Israeli-born reeds-playing
genius, Gilad Atzmon, is similarly enmeshed with the struggles of
the Palestinian people" -Joe Cushley
ASAF's Bio
Asaf 2002 (photo by Nick Rabbet)
Asaf was born in Israel in 1969. In the early 90s, having studied
drums for seven years with David Rich, he started playing professionally
with many jazz, rock, and free jazz artists in Israel such us; Harold
Rubin, Albert Beger, Ari Brown, and Emmmanuel Bex to name a few.
He played in various venues and festivals including the Jazz in
the Red Sea Festival and the Israel Festival. Asaf was also involved
in a variety of ethnic musics, playing with different klezmer groups
and Middle Eastern music artists such as Yair Dalal and Eyal Sela.
From 1994 he recorded and toured Europe with the Amir Perelman trio.
While still in Israel Asaf formed his own band, The Asaf Sirkis
Trio, with which he toured Israel and recorded his first album,
One Step Closer. His second project, The Inner Noise, was partly
commissioned by the department of arts of the Tel-Aviv City Council,
and was performed around Israel in 1997-8.
In April 1999 Asaf moved to London where he soon became a part of
the UK jazz and world music scene. During that year he started working
with Adel Salameh, a Palestinian Aud player/composer, as well as
Steve Lodder and Mike Outram with whom he reformed his own band,
The Inner Noise. In 2000 Asaf became a regular member of Gilad Atzmon's
Orient House Ensemble. This band has recorded four albums for Enja
Records and tours Europe frequently. Their album 'Exile' has won
'Best CD of the Year' at the BBC Jazz Award 2003 as well as in Time-Out
'Reviewer's Pick' (by John Lewis). The band was nominated for the
BBC jazz award 2004 as 'Best Band'. Asaf also plays/played with
other artists in the UK and in Europe, including Julian Siegel Quartet,
Larry Coryell, Gary Husband, John Taylor, Barbaros Erkose (Turkey),
Ari Brown (Chicago), Bela Szakcsi-Lokatos (Hungary), Glauco Venier
(Italy), Yuri Goulobev (Russia), Klaus Gesing (Austria), Christoph
Spendel (Germany), Eyal Maoz (NY), Sigi Finkel (Austria), Carlos
Barretto (Portugal), Simon Fisher Turner, Phil Robson, Arnie Somogyi,
Martin Speake, Mark Latimer, Reem Kelani, Christine Tobin, Nicolas
Meier Tom Arthurs and John Etheridge.
Asaf is also performing with the Larry Coryell trio this spring featuring Larry Coryell on guitar, Mark Egan on bass, and Asaf on drums. Details on Asaf's website: www.asafsirkis.co.uk
THE MYSTERY
released April 2007 featuring Tim Garland, the Northern Symphonia,
Chick Corea, and Asaf Sirkis
"A genuinely fine record... vital, essential music for anyone interested in the future of jazz composition." Jazzwise magazine
This seventy minute CD of orchestral music composed by Tim Garland integrates new orchestral music with the contemporary jazz world in a way seldom achieved, the jazz and modern-classical elements being present in equal measure.
Composed and arranged by Asaf Sirkis, this work is
influenced by modern classical music and in particular the music
of organ composers such as Olivier Messiaen and Maurice Durufle.
Combining modern jazz and elements of progressive rock (Yes, Emerson
Lake & Palmer), this album melds classical composing techniques
with the nuances of jazz improvisation. The Inner Noise is an organ
trio (organ, guitar and drums) with a new direction. By using church
organ sounds rather then the traditional Hammond organ sounds, the
trio creates a music that is rich and unique in spiritual tone.
CD Review, Jazz UK
March/April 2003
(Issue 50), UK
Here's one that defies categorizations. Asaf Sirkis, the brilliant
drummer with Gilad Atzmon's Orient House Ensemble, has here stumbled
on a sub-genre that might become known as Gothic Jazz. The music
is doom-laden and bombastic, yet strangely compelling. It has a
strong flavour of Europian church music Ð Steve Lodder plays real
church organ Ð and might appeal to anyone nostalgic for Emerson,
Lake and Palmer. The rest of us can respond to the way Sirkis animates
the church organ with his churning rhythms as guitarist Mike Outram
floats above the melee with single-line solos that climax in crying
high notes. The ecstasy owes to rock as much as rigorous old European
church music. - Mike Butler
Asaf & Mike Outram,
Bonongton Theatre,
March 2004
(Photo by Bob Meyrick)
Renaissance Man
CD Review Reviewed:
February 2004, UK
Inner Noise - Epic Fusion
For The 21st Century
Asaf Sirkis, the world class drum phenomenon (reminiscent of Jack
DeJohnette and Tony Williams at the height of their powers) that's
taken the British scene by storm over the last few years, is perhaps
best known as the engine of the rhythm section of the equally phenomenal
Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble (and the Gilad Atzmon Quartet).
The recently released album "Inner Noise" features the UK's leading
drummer with his own trio, Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise. Originally
partially commissioned by the Department of Arts of the Tel Aviv
City Council, Sirkis' "Inner Noise" project was performed around
Israel in 1997 to 1998 prior to his moving to the UK. Since moving
to Britain in 1999, Asaf Sirkis has re-formed his Inner Noise trio
with organist/keyboardist Steve Lodder and guitarist Mike Outram.
"Inner Noise", Sirkis' second solo album was recorded in March 2002
at St. Michael's Church in Highgate, North London, and released
in 2003 on Konnex Records.
Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise are about as far as you can get from
a conventional organ trio, not only featuring as it does full-blown
church organ rather than the traditional Hammond B3, but moreover,
playing music on a truly epic, even monumental scale. First impressions
of "Inner Noise" might recall Miles Davis and the Bitches' Brew
project and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra in its first
incarnation, as well as prog rock bands Emerson, Lake and Palmer
and Yes (though without the remotest hint of the latter's near-plagiarism).
But such comparisons could never do this album proper justice, for
it goes far beyond any of these yet maintains a far greater accessibility
than Davis' and McLaughlin's brands of fusion. While all these are
certainly influences, "Inner Noise" also shows clear influences
of modern classical organ composers, in particular Olivier Messiaen,
as well as of Arabic classical music. Sirkis gives all three instruments
broadly equal importance and sculpts a vast soundscape of monumental
proportions, employing strong, rich textures as well as delicate,
transparent ones as appropriate, and making fullest use of the rich
palette available to him, both in terms of the overall instrumental
colours and the colours of his own trap set.
Asaf at Nottingham 2002
(photo by Bob Meyrick)
His drumming is as brilliantly virtuosic and inventive as has indeed
become his trademark, combining subtlety and sheer effervescent
exuberance, even ecstasy, and while running a tight ship, Sirkis
also gives his fellow band members plenty of space where appropriate.
Lodder's and Outram's playing complements the master drummer's perfectly,
with both superb ensemble playing and outstanding soloing. The result
is an album that is utterly absorbing and compelling and reveals
Sirkis as a very formidable composer and arranger indeed. "Inner
Noise" doesn't just push boundaries, it completely transcends them
and thus defies categorisation. To describe it as a fusion of jazz,
classical and progressive rock would tell only half the story. You
could file "Inner Noise" under any of these genres, but you'll never
confine it, any more than you could define it. One previous reviewer
suggested the label "Gothic Jazz", a horrific oversimplification
in my opinion if not a downright abomination. Far better to focus
on just enjoying the experience that Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise
provide with this most remarkable and intense album.
City Life Magazine, October 2005
