eJazzNews Archive

Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise: The Song Within

Originally published on eJazzNews · · By Edward Blanco · CD Reviews

On November 3, 2007, eJazzNews published Edward Blanco’s review of The Song Within, the third album by the Israeli-born, London-based drummer and composer Asaf Sirkis with his trio The Inner Noise. The band paired drums with electric guitar and a church organ. Sirkis is still active: in January 2023 he became the drummer of the British jazz-rock group Soft Machine.

What the review said

Blanco introduced Sirkis as a drummer who had played rock, free jazz and various ethnic music in Israel before moving to the UK in 1999, and who had since become part of the British jazz and world music scene. He described the music as modern jazz-rock with classical elements, played by an unusual trio: Mike Outram on electric and acoustic guitars and Steve Lodder on keyboards and church organ. In his view the church organ gave the music depth and an almost spiritual quality, while Outram supplied a progressive rock edge.

He singled out “Theme for Gary,” which he felt belonged in a church setting, the slow title track built around Lodder’s keyboards, the nine-minute “When You Ask Why,” which he found melancholy but engaging, and the two parts of “Nothingness First Part.” He ended by praising Sirkis’s writing as challenging and sophisticated and the trio’s playing as tight.

The album and the band

The disc credits back up Blanco’s description. The Song Within came out in 2007 on SAM Productions (SAM 9004), with all compositions by Sirkis. The trio tracks were recorded at Eastcote Studios in London on November 15, 2006, and the solo organ pieces at St. Michael’s Church in Highgate on February 2, 2007. John Kelman of All About Jazz also reviewed it in November 2007, calling the group an organ-guitar-drums trio like no other.

Sirkis was born in Petah Tikva, Israel, in 1969. He first formed The Inner Noise in Israel in the late 1990s, around church organ, electric guitar and drums; his own biography names French organ composers such as Olivier Messiaen as the inspiration. After settling in London in 1999 he re-formed it with Lodder and Outram. The Song Within followed Inner Noise (2003) and We Are Falling (2005). At the time of the review he was also the drummer in Gilad Atzmon’s Orient House Ensemble, a role he held from 2000 until he left in 2009 to concentrate on his own work.

What happened next

In 2007 Sirkis formed the Asaf Sirkis Trio, which released The Monk (2008), Letting Go (2010) and Shepherd’s Stories (2013). He worked for years with saxophonist Tim Garland, including the trio album Lighthouse with pianist Gwilym Simcock, released on ACT in 2012, and co-led a quartet with the Polish singer Sylwia Bialas. Soft Machine’s official site says he joined the band in January 2023 as the successor to its long-serving drummer John Marshall. He has continued to release his own music, most recently the album The Journey Is You in October 2025, and The Song Within is now available on streaming services. For more players in his line, see our guide to jazz drummers.

Sources

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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