18 TUNES OF PROGRESSIVE JAZZ & BEYOND FEATURING ONE OF TODAY’S MOST VERSATILE AND TALENTED DRUMMERS
Dear Friends in Music,
Please let me introduce to You the music of Israeli-born and London-based drummer and composer Asaf Sirkis, who is frequenting very often the MoonJune Universe in past few years, and who is featured on two recent and critically highly acclaimed releases on MoonJune Records: Mark Wingfield’s ‘Proof Of Light’ and Dwiki Dharmawan’s ‘Pasar Klewer’. In 2017 Asaf Sirkis will be providing his masterful and poetic drumming on additional 4 albums on MoonJune. And I am pretty sure one of Asaf’s solo projects will be released on MoonJune in the second half of 2017 or early 2018. Asaf’s personality as well his music is truly inspirational, and I hope You can enjoy this free sampler of some of his drum work from the past 10+ years.
ASAF SIRKIS “FULL MOON”
Tracks selected by Leonardo Pavkovic.
DIGITAL COMPILATION ONLY. FREE DOWNLOAD
Direct link: www.asafsirkis-moonjune.bandcamp.com/album/full-moon-free-download
Featuring Aris Daryono (track 8), Ben Waghorn (10), Bernard Gregor-Smith (6), Carl Orr (10), Chris Garric (10), Demi Garcia (6), Dwiki Dharmawan (8), Eyal Maoz (18), Frank Harrison (3, 7,11), Fred T. Baker (10), Gabi Fortuna (7), Gabi Mayer (13), Geoff Eales (10), Gilad Atzmon (7,8,11,14), Guillermo Rozenthuler (11), James Pearson (6), John Turville (1), Kevin Glasgow (3), Kobi Arad (13), Lizzie Ball (6), Mark Wingfield (8,15,16), Markus Reuter (15), Mike Outram (2,9,17), Pat Bettison (6), Reem Kelani (7), Robert Wyatt (11), Steve Lodder (2,9,17), Sylwia Bialas (3), Tassos Spiliotopoulos (1,2,4,12), Tom Mason (14), Yaron Stavi (1,4,5,7,8,11,12,15,16).
“Israeli-born drummer and London resident Asaf Sirkis unleashes with thunderous abandon on this hard-hitting fusion offering that harkens back to a time before the genre became codified, diluted and reduced to a critical joke.” — Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times (USA)
“Since arriving in London from Israel at the end of the end of the ‘90s, Asaf Sirkis has earned a reputation as one of the world’s premier drummers” — Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
“Asaf Sirkis sounding creatively freer and more dramatically inventive than ever on drums.” — John Fordham, The Guardian
Sirkis is not only an inventive drummer but also a composer of rigour, wit and surprising delicacy” — Chris Ingham, Mojo Magazine
After establishing himself as an in-demand drummer and percussionist in his home country of Israel, Asaf Sirkis’ career began an greater upward trajectory upon moving to London, England in 1999. In addition to garnering significant critical praise for his own groups – most notably his Messiaen-informed Inner Noise, with guitarist Mike Outram and organist Steve Lodder, and his Asaf Sirkis Trio, with guitarist Tassos Spiliotopoulos and bassist Yaron Stavi – Sirkis has also made important contributions to the music of other emergent artists based in the UK. Bringing a unique pan-cultural vision to reed and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Tim Garland’s Lighthouse Trio, fellow Israeli expat, reed multi-instrumentalist Gilad Atzmon’s Orient House Ensemble and Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier’s Group, Sirkis, praised by drum icons such as Bill Bruford and Gary Husband, has also recorded with artists including reed multi-instrumentalist Klaus Gesing (Norma Winstone, Anouar Brahem), pianist Glauco Venier (Norma Winstone), guitarists Phil Robson (Partisans), pianist Gwilym Simcock (Tim Garland, The Impossible Gentlemen) and double bassist Yuri Golubev (Gwilym Simcock, Alex Hutton).
More recently, Sirkis has been working in a collaborative quartet with singer Sylvia Bialas, which also features keyboardist Frank Harrison and bassist Patrick Bettison, but perhaps most significant is his recent affiliation with New York’s MoonJune Records. Sirkis made his first MoonJune appearance alongside fellow Israeli expat, bassist Yaron Stavi, on guitarist Mark Wingfield’s critically acclaimed Proof of Light, but the fall of 2016 will see the percussionist’s involvement with the label accelerate significantly.
Sirkis made his second MoonJune showing in September 2016 on Dwiki Dharmawan’s Pasar Klewar, an ambitious double-disc set that also includes other names either already familiar or destined to become so to MoonJune fans in the coming year; in addition to Wingfield, guitarist Nicolas Meier, Yaron Stavi, Italian vocalist Boris Savoldelli and Gilad Atzmon all join Sirkis in making the Indonesian pianist/keyboardist’s sophomore effort for MoonJune a truly earth-shattering, trans-cultural affair that blends unrepentant jazz improvisation with music indigenous to Dharmawan’s home country.
Coming in the early 2017, the result of an intensive six days’ recording in the countryside of Catalonia,, Spain this past winter will see no fewer than four MoonJune releases involving Sirkis: first, the percussionist joins Stavi, Wingfield and progressive trio Stick Men’s touch guitarist Markus Reuter for The Stone House; following that, a collaborative trio recording with Wingfield, Reuter and Sirkis; a new Wingfield recording with Stavi and Sirkis; and, finally, a new recording from Barcelona based Serbian guitarist Dusan Jevtovic – whose MoonJune debut, 2014’s Am I Walking Wrong?, was well-received by critics and fans alike – that will include Sirkis, in addition to fellow Serb, pianist Vasil Hadzimanov.
It’s a busy year ahead for the London-based percussionist, and that’s only counting recordings that have already been made. With Sirkis’ remarkable ability to fit into any musical context and sound like he’s been at it for his entire life, things can only look even further up for this tremendously talented, empathically intuitive and, above all, supremely musical percussionist.
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