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Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise Go Cosmic
'This music is all about an-other to-morrow, another kind of language ...speaking things of blackness, about this void, the endless void, the bottomless pit surrounding you.' Thus opens the liner booklet to Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise's We Are Falling with a quote from Sun Ra. No matter how hard you try, there simply isn't a better way to sum up this outstanding album.
Where do you go from an album as fantastical and superlative in every way as the previous Inner Noise? If you're Asaf Sirkis, no problem it seems. You simply go to a cosmic scale and new dimensions.
We Are Falling goes beyond the mere epic, and far beyond any simple kind of fusion, it takes you on a journey through a soundscape that is truly cosmic, to the bottomless pit, to the endless void and into completely new dimensions of musical synthesis. This music takes you into the void, then procedes to turn you inside out till the void is inside you along with the rest of the universe, and you just keep on falling, endlessly. There is no beginning, no end, there just is. Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise take you to a state of pure being with We Are Falling, and coming back down to Earth can become quite an undesired event.
Asaf Sirkis again shows himself a very formidable composer and arranger, in addition to the kind of drumming genius that has made him probably the most in-demand drummer of his generation. The soundscapes that he creates both from the other instruments in his trio as well as from the rich palette of his own traps exploit these to the fullest and create textures that range from the rich, vibrant, lush, to sheerest gossamer. Whilst classical influences, especially that of French organ composers such as Olivier Messiaen as well as influences of old-school prog rock and old-school fusion a la Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and others abound, Sirkis' music represents a new kind of synthesis that transcends any of these genres and that will never be confined. Sirkis' brand of innovation doesn't rely on mere ideas, it is a creativity that is, well, that just is. It is pure, and unspoilt, it is like pure being.
This album has to be taken as a whole, and for that reason alone it would be pretty near pointless to go into detail for individual tracks. We Are Falling is a completely consistent album, and utterly compelling. But that is something that you can take for granted from Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise, as is the sheer virtuosic brilliance of Steve Lodder, Mike Outram, and of course Sirkis himself. The ensemble playing is as out of this world as the music itself, and so indeed is the soloing, and Sirkis gives his fellow conspirators plenty of room. It comes as almost something of a surprise just how "live" We Are Falling comes across, with an incredible immediacy and spontaneity. If you've never heard Asaf Sirkis' drumming live, this is about as close as you can get at present, though I still suggest you have to hear this phenomenal drummer/percussionist live. Sirkis' drumming is sensational, both his time-keeping and timing are perfection itself, and the kind of palette, the kind of spectrum of colours he draws out of his kit (or a frame drum, for that matter), beggars belief at times.
Even if you've never bought an album of vaguely jazz fusion type before, get the genuine article, get the best, get Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise's We Are Falling. This music is truly cosmic, in every sense of the word.
© 2005 Rainlore's World of Music/Rainlore. All rights reserved.
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