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Sirkis/Bialas IQ - Our New Earth, double album.
"European jazz is promised a virtually limitless future if it continues to stick close to its European roots embedded in the subsoil of specific regional cultures, and it continues to be performed by bands as imaginative as the SBIQ. "
Bill Bruford, Liner notes from "Our New Earth". Surrey 2019
The Sirkis/Bialas IQ, OUR NEW EARTH (MoonJune Records 2019).
Featuring:
Asaf Sirkis – drums, percussion, konnakol
Sylwia Bialas – lead and backing vocals, waterphone
Frank Harrison – piano and keyboards
Kevin Glasgow – 6 string electric bass
The SBIQ is an on-going band, established in 2014 consisting of four unique musical personalities bringing their individuality and working together as a team to create new explorative-forward-looking music.
The new album explores many different colours on the emotional spectrum, using some rarely used instruments in jazz such as the church organ, waterphone, crotales, konnakol, and different vocal sounds.
With an emphasis on band interaction and sheer joy of playing, ‘Our New Earth’ celebrates music from both Sirkis and Bialas, covering a wide range of influences such as contemporary classical music, Polish folk, Progressive rock, South Indian and Middle Eastern musics as well as a wide range of dynamics – from the most delicate ballad all the way to high-energy electric lines and everything in between; expect soulful melodies, aerospheric sounds with strong grooves, a full colour electroacoustic jazz with an ethnic touch and some uncommonly used instruments and sound effects.
Although Sirkis/Bialas IQ’s music can sometimes be generically referred to as ‘vocal jazz’, Sylwia’s approach to singing is different; making the role of the voice more like an instrument rather then a lead.
In her own words:
“I truly feel no need to take the central spot on stage (as a singer is often expected to). I am tremendously fulfilled in being part of the band, contributing to its sound, adding different colours, sharing the joy of interacting and taking risks together. There’s no greater satisfaction for me than to stand ‘inside the band’, listening to the sound created by my fellow musicians at its source, watching their body language. I feel very happy and thankful that both audience and critics recognise and accept my personal approach.
Our New Earth is the second album from the Sirkis/Bialas IQ. In comparison to the band’s debut album - Come To Me - this album is edgier, darker, full of tension and dissonance sound textures.
In the words of Sirkis and Bialas:
"The message behind Our New Earth is reflecting the drastic changes we are currently experiencing individually and collectively world-wide with the prevailing of technology, social media, and many other issues. We’d like to offer this music as a reflection, a wish of reconnection with nature and a kind of a prayer in music for a better world for all of us and hence the name Our New Earth".
“On the evidence of this concert, ‘Our New Earth’ from Sirkis/Bialas IQ should help further establish the quartet as one of the most interesting of contemporary jazz ensembles. With music this uplifting, so sensitively and passionately rendered, it`s hard not to be seduce”.
Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
Includes unlimited streaming of OUR NEW EARTH
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
"European jazz is promised a virtually limitless future if it continues to stick close to its European roots embedded in the subsoil of specific regional cultures, and it continues to be performed by bands as imaginative as the SBIQ. "
Bill Bruford, Liner notes from "Our New Earth". Surrey 2019
The Sirkis/Bialas IQ, OUR NEW EARTH (MoonJune Records 2019).
Featuring:
Asaf Sirkis – drums, percussion, konnakol
Sylwia Bialas – lead and backing vocals, waterphone
Frank Harrison – piano and keyboards
Kevin Glasgow – 6 string electric bass
The SBIQ is an on-going band, established in 2014 consisting of four unique musical personalities bringing their individuality and working together as a team to create new explorative-forward-looking music.
The new album explores many different colours on the emotional spectrum, using some rarely used instruments in jazz such as the church organ, waterphone, crotales, konnakol, and different vocal sounds.
With an emphasis on band interaction and sheer joy of playing, ‘Our New Earth’ celebrates music from both Sirkis and Bialas, covering a wide range of influences such as contemporary classical music, Polish folk, Progressive rock, South Indian and Middle Eastern musics as well as a wide range of dynamics – from the most delicate ballad all the way to high-energy electric lines and everything in between; expect soulful melodies, aerospheric sounds with strong grooves, a full colour electroacoustic jazz with an ethnic touch and some uncommonly used instruments and sound effects.
Although Sirkis/Bialas IQ’s music can sometimes be generically referred to as ‘vocal jazz’, Sylwia’s approach to singing is different; making the role of the voice more like an instrument rather then a lead.
In her own words:
“I truly feel no need to take the central spot on stage (as a singer is often expected to). I am tremendously fulfilled in being part of the band, contributing to its sound, adding different colours, sharing the joy of interacting and taking risks together. There’s no greater satisfaction for me than to stand ‘inside the band’, listening to the sound created by my fellow musicians at its source, watching their body language. I feel very happy and thankful that both audience and critics recognise and accept my personal approach.
Our New Earth is the second album from the Sirkis/Bialas IQ. In comparison to the band’s debut album - Come To Me - this album is edgier, darker, full of tension and dissonance sound textures.
In the words of Sirkis and Bialas:
"The message behind Our New Earth is reflecting the drastic changes we are currently experiencing individually and collectively world-wide with the prevailing of technology, social media, and many other issues. We’d like to offer this music as a reflection, a wish of reconnection with nature and a kind of a prayer in music for a better world for all of us and hence the name Our New Earth".
“On the evidence of this concert, ‘Our New Earth’ from Sirkis/Bialas IQ should help further establish the quartet as one of the most interesting of contemporary jazz ensembles. With music this uplifting, so sensitively and passionately rendered, it`s hard not to be seduce”.
Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
credits
released October 15, 2019
released October 2, 2019
SIRKIS/BIALAS IQ - Our New Earth
featuring:
ASAF SIRKIS: drums (all tracks), crotales (3, 6, 7,10), konnakol (7, 11), Manjira (7), frame drums (7)
SYLVIA BIALAS: voice (all tracks), waterphone (7, 9), overtone singing (6), lyrics (1, 2, 5, 10), konnakol (7)
FRANK HARRISON: piano (1, 2, 4, 5, 6 ,8, 10), keyboards (1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 11)
KEVIN GLASGOW: six string electric bass (all tracks)
Tracks 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11 composed by Asaf Sirkis. Tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, 10 composed by Sylwia Bialas. All arrangements by Asaf Sirkis & Sylwia Bialas, all lyrics & vocal arr. by Sylwia Bialas.
Recorded at Masterchord Studio, London (UK), Aug. 2017 | Voice recorded & produced by Christoph Reiss & Sylwia Bialas, Würzburg (GER), Dec. 2017 / Jan. 2018 | Mixed by Christoph Reiss (GER), Jan. 2019 | Mastered by Alex Klebl at the Marell Music Group (GER), Feb. 2019 | Cover artwork by Sylwia Bialas
Produced by Asaf Sirkis & Sylwia Bialas.
Executive production for the International release on MoonJune Records by Leonardo Pavkovic.
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“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
This is an amazing recording both musically and technically capturing some amazing musicians playing together to leave us something of wonder daveappleton
Another set of impossibly slick jams from an Aussie outfit who bathe disco-inspired rhythms in funky synths and psychedelic textures. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 3, 2024
UK jazz-rock icons pay tribute to British trumpeter Harry Beckett in the second entry in My Only Desire Records’ Brit Jazz 45s series. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 1, 2024
Mark Wingfield is always recommended listening for fans of Jazz or Fusion guitar (among the names usually dropped you'll find Alan Holdsworth, Terje Rypdal, Pat Metheny). Nevertheless, this isn't just pure Jazz. I seem to hear more traces of progressive rock than in his other recordings, but probably that's just an early impression... Carsten Pieper