Product Description
Sirkis has been described as having the drumming muscle for a thunderstorm , dust off the surface a little and a sensitive writer shines through. Opening track Stoned Bird takes in Chick Corea-esque jazz fusion. A piano solo on The Bridge shows the variety on offer from a composer with a broad tonal palette, and title track The Monk shows the contrast of pastoral organ with the rock antics of Tassos guitar - swinging it back into Tony Williams territory. The gothic rock descriptions that floated around his past record may again be referenced, but this album has a subtle style of its own
Review
In his long and playful partnership with saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, a recent and more delicate one with piano virtuoso John Law, and in many other settings from improv to fusion, Asaf Sirkis keeps confirming that he is one of the most creative drummers on the British jazz scene. Law has said that the way Sirkis just touches a cymbal is an inspiration. As a leader, however, Sirkis isn't quite so startling. This set moves between dramatic, slow-burn guitar chords and ostinatos set against thunderous drumming (reminiscent of the 1970s Mahavishnu Orchestra), a more sensuously grooving Joe Zawinul feel (supplied by guest keyboardist Gary Husband), and extended passages of speculative atmospherics for Tassos Spiliotopoulos's guitar. The leader's responses to the ideas around him are dazzling explosions of tom-tom patterns and spinetingling cymbal accents. While the group intensity is often compelling, there are also rather unfocused, loose-jam episodes, in a genre inviting memorable hooks that don't quite emerge. --John Fordham Gaurdian 12 09 2008
