Workshop Breathing Rhythms and a Sirkis/Bialas Duett - Performance at the Leeds College of Music, Leeds, UK

February 05, 2017 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends,

We`d like to share with you some impressions from our trip to Leeds and from our Workshop, duo performance and the Jam session with students from the Leeds College of Music.

This occasion is very special for me and for Asaf. It was the first time in our musical collaboration that we gave a duet performance. We both have to admit that it was not only a real challenge but also a huge fun and we`re definitely going to repeat this treat more often :-).

Then - off we go to Leeds!

Spirit of approaching Spring and the green juiciness on the fields...

My beloved sheep, chewing the first grass and chillin`in the sun...

Villages and meadows:

Don Quixote`s Land

And here Don himself:

Spartak Dermendjiev | bronze sculpture, bulgarian contemporary fine art, Don Quixote — Spartak Dermendjiev | bronze sculpture, bulgarian contemporary fine art, Don Quixote

Up to the North:

"sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain" and today too :-))))

English weather as always full of surprises:

Leicestershire this time the Foxy Lady`s Land! ;-)

and here Garth epic dance to Jimmie`s Foxy Lady - I just had to ;-))))...

Some morning humor - this one is for Asaf ;-) :

Funky Lorries!

Let`s take it to the bridge:

After 4h drive we got to Leeds...

Leeds is a vital city full of crazy architecture, colors and students! I love it here :-)

It`s fun to look at such exciting buildings...

Shadows of trees melting together with brick and glass...

Pigeonstarairport:

Leeds Cityscapes:

Street art :

A little, harmless tornado over the city:

Welcome to Leeds College of Music!

It wasn`t our first workshop at the Leeds College, but the first `Breathing Rhythms` one. The students here are attentive and responsive - a real pleasure to work with! After the workshop we had some time for chatting with the students and we got surprised by a request to make a duo performance for the participants.

Guys, remember the face of this young man - you`ll see it more often in the future! What a great bass player (no, its not Conor Chaplin!!! Only his doppelgänger :)...Greetings to Conor by the way!

We both got excited by performing a voice and drums duet and did it having an immense fun!

Some kind of magic ;-):

After our performance we participated in a jam session together with all the students and the fun continued. So many talented and creative people!

Reds and blues... In "F" ! Of course! :-))))

After the session and this long exciting and worky day we`ve drowned in a rainy night full of lights,

we took a dive in the greenish twilight

and eventually found our way to the hotel...

synchronicity - that means it was a very good day :-)

Radiance:

The next morning, after breakfast we left the hotel,

said GOOD BYE to Leeds : at this place - many warm thanks to the Leeds College of Music for having us and for the great hospitality ( Dear Jamil, it was a real pleasure!!! You`re doing an amazing job there!) and to all the motivated and talented students for their enthusiastic participation in the workshop and the uplifted musical spirits!!!

Last morning gaze at the city :

and a happy but tired comeback on the highway...

Beautiful sunset :-) unfortunately full of chemtrails :-/...gulp....

Gold & Silver / Sun & Rain / Shadow & Light / Fog & Wind - behind the glass

"Transformer" or "a former in trans" or a "former trans-" :-D, however a steel monster influencing the entire landscape :-):

The-way-back-bridge :

Seeing this kind of landscape I feel an urgency to be teleported into the sixties (...):

Here some animated clouds:

Flight of the swans

hmmm....:-):

Adam`s ribs:

Koi fish:

Ismael`s Lost Wing:

Gloomy landscapes:

"Windmills of your mind", because

they always somehow remind me of :

Greenland :

Orbs :

Shadowy eclipse :

After a longish drive reflecting the events of last day we finally got home.

Time to rest one day before playing with the Sirkis/Bialas IQ at the Southampton Jazz Club!

See you all there dear friends, thanks for following us! Stay tuned for all the news.

Much Love

Sylwia & Asaf

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"Breathing Rhythms" workshop with Asaf Sirkis & Sylwia Bialas at the Sage Gateshead, Newcastle

February 01, 2017 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear friends, here some foto impressions from the trip to Newcastle, where Asaf and I were running a `Breathing Rhythm` workshop at the Sage Gateshead (29.01.2017)

Me and Asaf had to start our trip to Newcastle at 6 am. The weather this morning has been changing like a kaleidoscope...

At first some dense fog....

Then some "shy" sunshine...

The road was widely open and surrounded by foxy-redness...

After that some spring rain out of nowhere surprised us...

30 min later the sun started to shine very strong and got very blinding...ekhm, extremely blinding!:

A perfect spring weather...Some juicy greenish landscapes...

We past the Sherwood Forest

Hi Robin, By Robin! :-)... Wooh my Childhood`s hero ;-). Remember Michael ?

The inevitable Chinese tea. Yes, I do realize how does it look like :-D!

My beautiful knitted schal - thanks to my friend Christiane ;-). It warms me the entire Winter.

Asaf - never wasting the precious time! Some serious "konnakoling" on the road!

The light was changing instantly as you can see - not easy to say what time of the day it could be:

Synchronicity:

Angel of the North - we like this sculpture very much...

and that`s why (...) :-)

No, this ain`t no winter landscape...

Not sure why this pattern reminded me of Winnetou ! ;-) Sometimes I`m surprised by my own associations.

hm....(?) hahah Now I know.

I love sun - gazing!

After 5h on the highway we finally got to Newcastle. I really love the vibe of that city...Always some new things to discover!

Some colorful factory-style:

"The power to be different" ;-)

Different kind of Tesco for example:.

There`s a lot of beauty everywhere - even in some dirty car windows...(...) :-)

A bit of a horror :

Here The Sage Gateshead, a very "digestive" ;-) and futuristic architecture!

What a genius thing - to put the parking space on the top of the roof - the sights were stunning...

Spot the flying saucer! ;-)

Here the room where we were running the workshop. 34 Participants on Sunday afternoon! Great!...

A little break:

The workshop was fun. Here what we did with those young musicians:

BREATHING RHYTHMS CONTENTS:

The basics of Konnakol (South-Indian vocal percussion) and its uses in western music.

Developing rhythmic awareness on the mental and physical level

Acquiring `rhythmic devices`

Improvement of coordination

Understanding and internalizing odd times

Mastering rhythm at any time and anywhere you are

Spotting and resolving challenges in performing rhythm

Learning techniques of correct and efficient breathing

Understanding the relations between healthy breathing, relaxed posture, easy coordination, effortless movement and sound - perception

Helpful ways of developing technical skills

Gaining freedom and confidence in vocal performance

Inspiring rhythmic ideas for original compositions

Incorporating meditation to your day-to-day practice

and more...

Asaf after 5h of driving, 5h of workshop, ready to drive 5 hours more - Beautiful!

The walls start to be alive when an artwork melts together with them...

The Sage in the evening is a great spectacle of lights and architecture.

Amazing neon - ambience. You can smell the art in the air :-)

Night outside of the Sage:

What`s on:

Street art outside:

Comusica:

Views from the nighty roof:

The way back home was very long and full of reflections from the workshop.

Big thanks to James, Roger for having us, for the great hospitality and all the participants for their enthusiasm and an enjoyable work together.

Time to sleep. Good night everybody!

See you soon at Leeds College! We`re running there another Breathing Rhythms Workshop.

Take care, much Love

Sylwia & Asaf

xxx

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SIRKIS/BIALAS IQ - Spring Tour 2017 / GIG 3 - FARNHAM MALTINGS, UK

January 29, 2017 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Peeps,

Another gig from our Spring Tour is behind us. We played in Farnham Maltings. What a day it was...Phew! Loads of happenings - some very good, some very challenging. Se la vie!

This time we featured the great Ivo Neame on the keys! A beautiful musician and human being.

And here he is! Tuxedo style with hands full of keys :-) :

Soooooo - let`s go together for a trip to Farnham!

The weather was grayish and the landscapes sleepy... My stubborn bad cold still gives me some really hard time. Can`t wait for the Doctor Stage to sort it out ;-)...

Till then some ultrabitter Chinese teas :-)

and as much rest as possible...

No difference between up and down by this weather...

Friday afternoon traffic:

Before the gig we had to pick up Kevin from the Heathrow Airport. Ivo drove to Farnham on his own with the whole artillery of keyboards!

Our windows need some rain...;-)

BA Plane stuck on a lantern

the power of advertisement (...)

welcome to brexit :-)

illegal pick up! ehm ehm - drop off

A rocket start! ;-)

On the way to Farnham we passed some funky lorries. Here one of those:

and a group of proud British bikers spreading themselves on the highway - go boyzzz!

I promised Kev some UNHEALTHY CAKE, so I had to bake some ;-)

And some healthy power bars from our epic dehydrator (not for Kevin!- too healthy) :

It was already getting dark when we got to the Venue:

The building from outside:

The "redbrickedentrancedoor"...

Here a text about Farnham Maltings cut from their website :

" Farnham Maltings is a cultural organisation, based in south west Surrey, that exists to encourage the people of Farnham and further afield to participate in, shape and understand the world in which we live. We believe that by being actively creative, connecting with others and articulating new ideas we will foster a happier, healthier and more inclusive set of communities."

Well, this sounds promissing...

The weather was frosty, obviously also inside:

"An Aquarium For Drummers" or "Asaf uplifted" :-):

There`s no IQ blog without Kevin`s famous FACE - :-D

We got to the venue pretty early in order to set up the gear. There were many events happening in the House and everybody was very busy, so we took care of ourselves quietly and just went with the stream finding our gig room and making the soundcheck on our own....

Ivo Arrived a bit later with some concerning news about his wife that had to go to hospital this evening. It is tough to play a gig worrying about someone... Also those things belong to our musician-lives on the road...

Setting up of the gear and our soundcheck :

During soundcheck there was a movie presentation trial running in the same room and I couldn`t ignore the hilarious interaction happening between Ivo setting up and fixing his keys and the situation on the screen :

IVO`S FOTOSTORY:

featuring Siegfried, the mysterious man on the screen!

Sigfried in the orange abbyss of his existence...

And so the story goes...

Cable - salad, Kabelsalat or Insalata Cablese ;-))) A nice expression to describe some chaos on the floor before the gig.

Asaf being serious :-)

Kevin vanishing in the vibration of his low tones...It was hard to capture him at all! :-)

Asaf got caught into it too!

It`s great to have fun and laugh together and it is very easy with those guys, but then we had to face the bitter part of this evening... Before we started playing the first set, Ivo wanted to grab his bag, laying all the time close to his keyboard and go to the green room as he realized that the bag is gone! The wallet and the car keys were inside of the bag (!)...Firstly we thought that maybe somebody took it to the green room with all our gear cases and clothes but after more than one hour of searching up every nook of the venue and not finding it and considering the fact that Ivo and the rest of us didn`t move the bag and remembered it lying on the floor till shortly before the gig - we had to accept the bitterness of the fact that somebody has stolen it...aaaarrrghhhhh.....

Ivo had to start the gig with his head full of worries but again:

helped immediately and we all enjoyed a lot playing the gig together!!!

Those moments when music, when magic happens are so precious...After long driving, schlepping the equipment, dealing with hardships and tiredness everybody suddenly docks in and forgets everything ... Performing music makes you "cleanse" your soul and express yourself in a very direct way...I guess we all really love and need that very much...

The audience enjoyed the gig - we got some very warm and positive feedback...

Time to set off and to deal with the situation...

Luckily our van was big enough to carry the four of us and Ivo`s complete equipment so we all could drive home directly after the gig...

Some Golden Explosion ;-) on the way back:

We brought Kev to the train station in Guilford,

where he had to exercise a 3 min run to get the last train to London! Fortunately everything went well :-)

Go Kevin GO!

In the meantime I was able to capture some fog, rain and light spectacle happening on the window surface of our van :-):

Back on the rainy highway...

Meteorite - rain :

Light - Constellations:

Chiaroscuro, rain, trees, colors and restrictions! :

Close encounter with a dragon:

A bunch of swans:

After some time on the highway we got to the hospital to pick the keys from Maya (Ivo`s Wife),

then we drove to Ivo`s place to drop off the gear and back to the hospital again, so him and Maya could finally be together... What a night for those Two... We`re sending you love and good energy, guys! Maya, get well soon !!!

Ivo, thank you so much for playing with us - we had loads of fun together XXX

Let`s drive home! :-)

When you drive at night, sometimes you start to see strange things ;-):

(...)

We (Asaf and myself) got pretty tired so seeing this suggestive sign we decided to deliver a proper ass-dance in the car ;-D :

It always helps to wake up!

Here we go everybody - ahahaahhh!:

But moderately - seriously - with this optimistic accent after unloading the car we fell into our beds like stones that were not capable to roll any more...:-)

Time to say GOOD NIGHT / GOOD MORNING and send you all loads of love!

And : Dear tief from Farnham, may your karma bring you what you`re asking for.

Bye everybody! See you soon in Southampton! XXXXXXX

In the meantime me and Asaf will run some workshops...

here our Tour Again:

Sylwia & the SIRKIS/BIALAS IQ

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SIRKIS/BIALAS IQ - Spring Tour 2017 / GIG 2 - ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL (FOYER) - LONDON, UK

January 21, 2017 / Sylwia Bialas

Hello Everybody!

I`m very happy to share with you some photo impressions and adventures from the second gig of our spring tour 2017. This time we featured a very gifted and charismatic Polish pianist based in London - Tomasz Bura on piano and keys. Here he is:

Let`s go then!

This was a very intense and exciting day for all of us. Asaf was a real hero managing surviving of the day running on a high energy level. He slept only two hours the night before ( after the late night gig at Ronnie Scott`s with Jacob Colier ). I`ve watched the live stream from this gig online - what a band!!! Check it out here. To go straight to this set up just start watching at 40:00 :

As the side effect of that "night - flight" Asaf forgot his cymbals at the rehearsal room and for a moment we were in "danger" of delating our gig. Luckily Tomasz was able to pick them up and bring to the venue. Phew! THANKS TOMASZ !!! That`s life I guess. Musician`s life... :-))) You throw yourself in the musical vortex and follow it literally till :

We had a good laugh at the rehearsal when Tomasz recognized Asaf`s passion for eating big amounts of Avocados... There was a pretty, little, fluorescent, green spot in the middle of the printed music chart. We should write an "Avocado Suite" for the next gig! Yes!

and this will be the CD cover!:-D — and this will be the CD cover!
:-D

The streets of London Town flooded with light on the way to the rehearsal room at the North London Music Academy, where Tomasz teaches playing the piano..:

After the rehearsal we drove to the Royal Festival Hall... Here some pics from the way:

3 descriptions to the picture below:

a) the romantic one : Blue in Green over London Town

b) the pragmatic one : wooh! Time to wash the touring van - ahahahah! :-))))

c) the hardcore one : emerald bug cemetery or THE BEETLE / BEATLE JUICE - ;-)

choose your fav one :-)!:

REMEMBER ?

Our beloved corner shops with greens and the best Türkisch Bagels:

It ain`t no London trip without a bagel...or two...or....my goodness...

I don`t know why this image makes me think about the streets of Israel in the winter. Sunshine, oranges on the trees... It might be that ;-)

Freddie would sing now : " I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike". Not sure what to think about this view thow... Not many of those bikes are in the use in London as you can see (...) :

Warm Greetings to my dear friends from Bayern ;-) - Die Brezen gibts überall, auch in London! Also ich hab sie sofort gesehen - hahaha!

Green Arrow crossing the street. Easy to meet a hooded Vigilante in London, as you see, even in the middle of the day.

After a morning rehearsal we got to the venue : Royal Festival Hall - Foyer that could be also called "The Moomin Land" - soon you`ll understand why:

If you still don`t know Moomins - it is worth to change it - the most mindful stories, not only for kids written by Tove Jahnsson - a good finnish witch ;-).

Tove Jahnsson

Warm greeting to Frank Harrison, returning to Oxford TODAY! ;-)

Enough about moomins. Here the venue - inside:

Outside:

A colorful art - Instalation hanging from the ceilings all over the place:

Sirkis/Bialas IQ - soundcheck and some fun before the gig:

My favorite part a la "paparazza" : THE SILLY - WILLY TIME, Kevin`s special face never fails but Tomasz became a serious concurrency for him - love you guys :

I know I know, no pictures of me again - well this is my destiny - staying behind the vail and alllllways serious ;-)))), carramba! :

The gig was fun! The venue very well attended, some good musician - friends from London came by. It was great to play the brand new material and test some new arrangements! So awesome to observe how differently the tunes may sound played by diverse musicians. A great way to squeeze the musical essence out of them and hold it in the future arrangements.

Big thanks to Tomasz for putting both, his sensitivity and the explosive musical nature in playing our tunes - lovely to work together!

Time to pack the stuff and head home - some serious sleep could be a great idea...

After 3 intense gigs almost without sleeping - Asaf still smiling packing his drums. This is something - trust me guys :-)

Some concrete - concrete view outside the venue:

I wonder what do you keep in a headroom - heads probably... A Headhunter`s place...:

From the left : Tomasz, Kev, Sylwia and Asaf - I know, the description was not necessary.

All that directly opposite the statue of :

BIG WHEEL KEEP ON TURNING:

Cyberface in outerspace:

Some seriously "spaced - out" architecture. It could easily come from somewhere else ;-) :

Somwhere else...

And here a levitating time - traveller caught by taking off !!!

Teleported by the spaceship:

Of course, how else! Welcome back to the future guys ;-)!

Brexit, oh Brexit (...) :

An euro coin on the wall of a giant building we`ve passed...

Beautiful explosion of lights:

Azzzuroooooo il pommmmmeriiiiiiggggiiiioooo troooopppppoooooazzzzzuuuuuurrrroooo and eeeevvvveeeeeeen byyyy niiiiighhhht - all right! :-))):

Trippy tunnels:

More London blues`:

This picture reminds me the famous Wiatomo Glowworm Cave in New Zealand, can you see why?:

Wiatomo Cave, New Zealand

The Weather Report from London. Eric Gravat says - it`s very dark & stormy!

We`ve been listening to Weather Report all the way home...:-)

By the way - Alfred Hitchcock`s Birds (or rather their holograms:-)) attacked the van on the highway - but no worries - no victims!

Hahah, couldn`t stop myself:

photo by Fahey/Klein, please check out this artist - awesome work!!! : http://www.faheykleingallery.com/artists — photo by Fahey/Klein, please check out this artist - awesome work!!! : http://www.faheykleingallery.com/artists

We got home without bigger damages, just some feather sticking to the van ;-). Time to say good night!

Much love to all of you and see you on the 27.01 in Farnham, we`re featuring the extraordinary pianist Ivo Neame on the piano and keys!

Sylwia, Asaf and THE SIRKIS/BIALAS IQ!

Here our spring dates all together, see you somewhere on the road!:

xxx

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SIRKIS/BIALAS IQ - Spring Tour 2017 / GIG 1 - Mirth Marvel and Maud, London, UK

January 12, 2017 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends,

Sirkis/Bialas IQ is on the road again!

This tour is very special for the entire band. The purpose of this particular one is to play, practice and work out the new tunes for the upcoming album. We`re experimenting with some freshly written material, testing the arrangements, synth sounds and collecting the feedback of the audiences. I really like the thought that the band is going into the studio after playing a proper tour and in the moment when the music already "streams through our bloodstreams" not the other way around. It gives us a feeling of producing something sounding natural. This music will be much more folky and wrapped in the sound of the church organ and crotales. We are still writing new tunes testing which of them will make it on the album and fulfill the new concept allthow the most relevant thing for us is just to write straight from the heart.

This time we featured our friend Yaron "Iron" ;-) Stavi on the bass. Thanks Yaron! It was a pleasure - as always.

Before the gig we struggled a lot with unloading of the gear as the parking space for the bands was taken by some other car and it took us a long time to manage the situation, I used the time for spotting some photo-objects - now ain`t that cute? :-):

Many thanks to the Arts Council for supporting us

and to John Turville for organizing the gig that opened our tour at the E17 Jazz (Mirth , Marvel & Maud) a beautiful old ex - theater/cinema with some serious jazz history in the background. John Turville told us that Master Coltrane himself played on this stage years ago...

John Coltrane - watercolor by Fabrizio Casseta

Here some pictures of the venue:

Nice, viby lightening...

The venue was recently reopened after many years of being inactive and at the time it is not very well known as a jazz venue yet. That fact definitely had an influence on the number of the people in the audience. It didn`t bother us much as the listeners that were present enjoyed the gig and we could restore our "christmas chops" (I`m still recovering from a bad cold) :-) and play the new material for the very first time in a relaxed and cosy athmosphere.

Please spread the word about this place so the hall fills up with more audience!

Amusingly the entire stage was full of flashy confetti laying around and gooeying to our feet. That feeling must have been similar to walking on the moon full of alien algae in an astronaut-suit ;-)

It was so nice to listen to Alan Pasqua`s solo album: Russian Peasant before the gig...What a fine, peaceful and meditative piece of music:

A DOUBLE SUNSET OVER ASAF`S DRUMSET :-)))

Stage set up:

The boyzzz with their toyzzz:

A SINGLE SUNSET BEHIND TAJ MAHAL :-D - LOVE!

It was a nice warm up - gig before the rest of our tour... Time to set off the gear and drive home.

HEY - HO - LET`S GO! When the gate is open! :-)))

MOBY DICK on the way back:

Good night everyone!

See you in London again on the Jan 20th.

Much love,

Sylwia & The Sirkis/Bialas IQ

xxx

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Sirkis/Bialas IQ - RECORDING A NEW ALBUM - THE ENTIRE PROCESS FROM SCRATCH! PART 2

January 09, 2017 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends,

Asaf and myself wrote till now 9 compositions for our new album. We`re very excited to rehearse the tunes with our band and try them out on the road. Looking forward to working out the arrangements and figuring out what kind of compositions should we still create and add to the repertoir to make it even more colorful and varied.

This time the tunes are mainly based on the sound of church organ and crotales - a tuned percussion instrument made out of small chromatically set cymbals. The music will sound very much like "us" but in even more folky and viby setup :

We start the tour tomorrow playing a gig at the Mirth, Marvel And Maud in London. Hoping to see you there!

Here the new leaflet with all our spring - dates:

Now a little bit about the composing process...

Me and Asaf agree that for both of us this one of the favorite stages of creating an album but also a very tricky one, aspecially when you`re in the middle of various events that distract you when you need a free mind to let creativity happen...I guess you all know exactly what I`m talking about ;-). Anyway, whatever you do and whatever you`re involved into - there`s always that subconscious "movie of original compositions", lines and grooves running inside of your brain and you`re putting all the musical pieces of the puzzles in your mind over the months to finally bring them to the paper and then watch them reveal the entire picture while playing it with your band... Every hardship on the way molds an even stronger and more enthusiastic vision of the end product.

Right now I`m putting myself together after a long and strong bad winter cold and we both try to get our christmas-chops into normality ;-).

An experimental phase is awaiting us. Recording of our last album "Come To Me" happened before we toured with the new material. This time we decided to make it the other way around and play some gigs before going into the studio. It already turned out that we prefer this scheme much more... Let`s see what comes out :-)! It feels like it will be a piece of an honest and hearty music, but still some serious work to do...

:-) While writing this blog, I`m sitting in Tim Garland`s cosy kitchen

and listen to his Quartet rehearsing. What a treat :-). Tim, Asaf, Ant Law and Jason Rebello practicing some magic :-)...Love those guys. Great musicians and very fine human beings :-))))

Always nice to listen to all the funny stories and news and laugh together!

Here a video from the guys playing a gig at the Pizza Express...

Ok dear peeps, I`m so much looking forward to share with you all the happenings of our tour and the new recording.

Stay tuned for the news!

Much love and HAPPY, PEACEFUL NEW YEAR FOR ALL OF US!!!

Sylwia & the Sirkis/Bialas IQ

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SIRKIS/BIALAS IQ - a new Leaflet!

January 08, 2017 / Sylwia Bialas

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Our tour begins soon...Sirkis/Bialas IQ on the road again. Here the Spring Tour Dates!

January 08, 2017 / Sylwia Bialas

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Sirkis/Bialas IQ - RECORDING A NEW ALBUM - THE ENTIRE PROCESS FROM SCRATCH! PART 1

December 06, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends,

The Sirkis/Bialas IQ is going to record a new album (It`s our second one). I`d like to take you with us for a journey of creating an album from the scratch and everything involved in such production. Many of you might wonder how much work and effort it takes to get from an idea to the final product and how many different stages of development are involved in this process... We`d like to share our experiences with you and let you to take part in it. We do the entire job by ourselves so an album is literally our "new baby"...

Before the recording we are going to rehearse and tour a lot, so the music will be already sattled and organic in the moment of recording.

This tour will be supported by Arts Council England. Many Thanks for that!

Me and Asaf needed some new, actual pictures. We`ve asked our talented friend & photographer Monika S. Jakubowska to do a Fotosession with us. Thanks Moni - for the great Session!

Aaaand here the results. I`ve already designed some new posters and feedback cards for the next tour!

Also our feedback cards are ready and printed.

Bildschirmfoto 2016-12-06 um 16.23.29.jpg

Bildschirmfoto 2016-12-06 um 16.23.34.jpg

Asaf is our manager and coordinates our tour, which is a hell of a work to do. I`m taking care of all the designs, press infos and social media presence.

Here the latest Newsletter:

NEWSLETTER - DIRECT LINK

The posters, inside of the envelopes :

and ready for a trip to the venues...

Even things such as "DO NOT BEND" stickers matter, if it is about getting the posters "untouched" to their destination...

Writing music for a new album is the most pleasant but also the most time consuming process. Asaf and I have completely different ways to approach composing. This makes the whole thing very exciting. Recording the tons of ideas, picking the best parts, creating new forms, thinking about the entire sound, listening to what we`ve done and discussing the possibilities...We both love it. The only thing is that sometimes we`re so absorbed with all the admin and organizing around the recording that the creative process becomes very difficult...

Here some fun for you guys in case you don`t know this one yet - John Cleese on Creativity - I think it`s genius... ;-):

We are going to spend the Christmas time on writing music and working out the arrangements for the new compositions. A travel to Poland is on our agenda!

The midi keyboards will travel with us:

Thanks for being with us! We`re keep you updated with all the news and are looking forward to see you on the road soon....

Much love,

Sylwia, Asaf and The:

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SIRKIS/BIALAS IQ - NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

November 19, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

NEWSLETTER - DIRECT LINK

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Sirkis/Bialas IQ`s Spring Tour 2017 supported by Arts Council England and recording of a new album!

October 30, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends,

I feel very happy and excited to announce working together with Asaf Sirkis on writting new music for Sirkis/Bialas IQ` s new album that will be recorded in 2017. As an ìnterlude`to the recording we are going to play a long tour with the band in Spring 2017!

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New review of album `Come To Me`by Sirkis/Bialas IQ! Written by John Marley.

October 19, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

JOHN MARLEY` REVIEW

Thank You JOHN MARLEY!

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Sirkis/Bialas IQ Autumn Tour. The Albany Club in Coventry, UK

October 15, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends,

The Autumn tour brought us this time to Coventry. John Turville has joined us for an usual "good shred" :-). Always pleasure, always fun, great playing and great laugh together!

Let`s go for a trip!

Shades of green slowly giving up on greenness:

Swarms of Autumn - travellers:

The Waze took us on a huge Friday-traffic-detour and we passed the flying island of Laputa ;-):

Remember this one ;-)?

Some serious Konnakol practicing in the car !:

The gloomy part of the Autumn season is approaching:

And here an explosion of rainbow jelly beans in the sky! :

It made me think about one of my favs : Flight of The Concords (I`m a fan :-))) :

Last Autumn flowers in motion:

My good old blog - friends :

The romantic aspects of the nature - "A COMPOSTMASHINE" or literally some "BULL****" :-))) :

Gosh, sometimes I`m catching myself on laughing while writing this blog. Please forgive me my edgy polish humor :-DDD! Just couldn`t stop myself...

The entrance to Coventry was kept in the "cow-mode". This Polish shop is called "Little Cow" :-), well, why not - after all those "King`s Arms", "The Mouths", "Eve and The Lambs", etc. ;-) - a Little Polish Cow in the middle of Coventry - I like it :-):

Some nice graphics on the buildings:

It got dark pretty fast...But the stars in the Sowiet - Union - style :-) lit up the streets!:

Entrance to the Albany club with a black "Dementor - Umbrella" :-) on the front - as you can see I immediately applied the "Expecto patronum" - it worked. :

The Albany Club is a big venue with a stage for the band. Here some impressions:

Pictures from the soundcheck:

The promoter of the club is the nicest person. We felt welcomed and taken care of...

Homy vibes on stage, thanks for the nice lamps :-)!

The entire staff was warm and friendly. Nice food for us:

and an opportunity to choose ANY color of the light on stage - I went for red with a special: The Jewish Sinagogue flair, only for Asaf ;-) - we had to laugh so badly:

Alien presence on stage... First the music stands got invaded,

then an artificial intelligence took the control over Kevin!!! :

It wouldn`t be a Sirkis/Bialas IQ blog without Kevin`s famous "faces"! hahahahhh

Now a Quizzzz: what can make Asaf Sirkis THAT happy? :

The Answer : Those killer - beauties freshly from Istanbul - what a fun to listen to theit sound!

Here some real magic... John on another planet...I could swear to see a daisy or a daffodil blooming out of his soul/head :-):

I think Asaf saw it too! hahah :

The gig was great. The sound, the audience, the venue, the promoter - what a fun to play when everything is right!!! The most precious thing was to hear some warm words of appreciation from the audience that never listened to Jazz before. All in all - a great evening and loads of fun for everybody...

Here myself - this time in front of the camera :

Time to leave Coventry and THE ALBANY CLUB! Thank you for having us and we`re looking forward to come back here!!! Thank you also for your effort and great work invested in running this venue. We appreciate it a lot !

Dear Friends, please spread the word about this place - it is a great one to visit if you want to listen to some good live music!

This one is so tipical : me after the gig - tired but happy, with a weary hair style, sitting on stage among the packed gear and waterbottles, blinded by the spot - lights and ready to sleep...:-))))

Let`s go back on the road and drive back home...Bye John, always a pleasure to play together!!!

This gig will be tattooed in our memories!

Passing the viby blairwitch-project-landscapes on M1 we saw a group of wild "Ls", @s and a mexican cactus running in our direction. Then some fluorescent birds appeared above the road. Good that Asaf is such an experienced driver ...;-)

We`ve brought Kevin to the Luton Station and hugged him good bye. He then turned into a night mist and disappeared in the darkness of the Luton Station swallowed by a train ;-)

Good night also to you, dear friends! Our Quartet is preparing for a new recording and a huge tour in the Spring. I`m gonna update you with all the news. Thank you for travelling with us and see you soon!

Much love,

Sylwia & the Sirkis/Bialas IQ

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Sirkis/Bialas IQ Atumn Tour. The Inkwell, Leeds, UK

October 04, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends, after the "adventurous" night at the Hotel in Newcastle, we brought Kevin to the Train Station. At the next gig we`re looking forward to feature a great musician and a lovely soul - Conor Chaplin! Will be awesome to play together again!

Train Station - Bye Kev! Have a great trip to Japan!!!

Leaving Newcastle...

A CAT, A RABBIT & A RAVEN:

3 friends from the other side of the mirror...

A beautiful weather on way to Leeds. We met three cloudy humpback whales and a floating city hanging over our van :-):

We got to the venue around midday...

About Inkwell ( text from their website): "A safe creative art space in Leeds"

"Enriching lives through creativity and promoting positive mental health

Inkwell is a safe, creative and accessible space where passion and skills entwine, challenging the stigma of mental health and celebrating the diversity of its participants. It seeks to engage, stimulate and absorb all abilities through creative activity. Users develop life skills such as teamwork and problem solving leading to increased confidence and improved wellbeing.

We are a Leeds Mind Project, a national registered Charity supporting people experiencing mental health difficulties. Leeds Mind provides services throughout the Leeds area and believes that everyone can lead a full, active and rewarding life. We support people to discover their own resources to ‘recover’ and to live life independently with their mental health condition.

Sirkis/Bialas IQ Autumn Tour, The Globe, Newcastle,UK

October 04, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear friends, this time I`d like to invite you to share with us the memories from the awesome gig at The Globe in Newcastle. On the same day before the gig me and Asaf were running a workshop `Breathing Rhythms`at The Sage in the same city. To avoid any stress before the gig we decided to set up our gear at the midday, just before the workshop started. The promoters of The Globe made it possible for us - many thanks for that!

Here the venue:

The Globe is a wonderful cosy and creative place runned by the nicest people. It is always important to show the appeciation and recognition to all that promoters that put their entire hearts in running the venues like this one. Places where you feel that you`re welcome and treated with warmth and kindness and where you`re taken care of in the best possible way. Debra Milne (jazz singer herself) and all the staff from the Globe definitely make this place very special! Big Thank You for that :-)!!!

After the workshop at The Sage, Debra gave us a lift to the venue,

where Frank and Kevin were already waiting for us :-).

A little "selfie", as I mostly stand behind the cam ;-):

Here my favorite corners at The Globe:

A nice collection of vintage lamps at the windowsill

Soundcheck and the last preparations before the gig:

What a great gig it was! The venue was filled with people . Some didn`t get a sitting place. Many participants of the workshop came by. The vibe was amazing. We enjoyed playing in front of such responsive and enthisiastic audience! Looking forward to see the pictures from the evening made by Ken Drew! Ken, it was a pleasure to meet/see you again!

All in all the experience at The globe was wonderful. We all hope to come back!!! Thank you Debra and everybody at the Venue! Thanks also to Dave Parker for organizing the workshop!

Much love to all of you and keep doing a great job with keeping live music alive and at it`s best!

Time to drive to the hotel and have some sleep before the lunchtime gig at the Inkwell in Leeds.

Nop, this isn`t the end of the blog yet as the situation at the Hotel turns out very interresting :-). Everything looks very harmless from outside, but the adventure starts when we get in after waking up the receptionist sleeping very deeply in his chair. (I waited about 20 minutes in the car till the guys checked in :-).

The first thing that attracted my attention was the tone of the warning hanging on our room door:-))))). Aspecially the section "red" is awesome :

3 things were missing here : "Do not use the heating - it`s not working anyway", "Do party till the morning!" as the neighbours from the room above us did (...) and "Keep cool - leave the door in peace, no matter how out of control you get"- hahahah:

As an experienced master of survival ;-), I decided to switch on my private heating before going to sleep :-D:

Asaf, Frank and Myself didn`t get much sleep that night, even the ear-plugs failed. Only Kevin slept like a baby explaining us in the morning that it was one of "those hotels", were you party insted of sleeping. Well - if we only knew ;-)...Anyway - if you`re a touring musician and want to sleep at night - please concider avoiding this friendly hotel ;-).

Tomorrow Inkwell in Leeds! See You all there!!!

P.S. I will update you how we`ve survived the night :-)))

Much love, Sylwia

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01.10.2016 A 4h Workshop `Breathing Rhythms` for instrumentalists and singers at the Sage in Newcastle Gateshead

October 04, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Good morning my Friends!

Another workshop day and a gig in the evening ahead of us! We`re very much looking forward to both! It will be awesome to get the band complete tonight as well! :-).

There`s so much to share with you that I decided to divide this day into 2 separate blog posts ;-)!

Here we go!

Newcastle in daylight:

Newcastle is definitely on of the most architecturally wild cities I`ve seen in UK. Large industrial areas, old fashioned style freely mixed with modern and futuristic style. Art mixed with factory style and a huge pallete of colors involved. The weather and light have an immense impact on the outfit of the buildings and the flair of the city.

I`d like to show you The Sage (a place of our workshop) from inside:

"Presented by creative producers Wild in Art, working in partnership with St Oswald’s Children’s Hospice, Great North Snowdogs will bring together businesses, artists, schools and community groups to create a public art trail of beautiful Snowdog sculptures, based on the story The Snowman and The Snowdog, by Raymond Briggs."

Here some more pics of the Snowdoggies :-):

Asaf in front of the workshop-space. A very serious face today... ;-):

One of the rooms booked for the workshops. It looks very black & white from this perspective, but on the opposite walls I`ve found some colorful treasures painted by some kids.

Hahah, this cat has obviously some serious stomach ache :-). Cute paintings...:-):

Hah! I spotted a lonely dwarf among the Sage - labirynths!. I wish I could catch this wide smile he gave me after I took this picture :-D

Something tells me that we were close to some facilities for kids ;-)

We had a worky and very enjoyable workshop with some adult, very attendive and really nice participants. Unfortunately I was too busy to take any pictures during teaching. We invited everybody to our gig with Sirkis/Bialas IQ at the Globe tonight! Many thanks to the organizer of the workshop and to all the participants! Hoping to see you tonight at the Globe!

Let`s move now to the parking place at the roof of the building! You got to see those views!

Time to say THANK YOU and GOOD BYE to The Sage and move to The Globe for a gig!

We`re burning to play with our band tonight :-)!

See you there!!!

And here only for you an emerald rhapsody:

Much love, Sylwia

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30.09.2016 A 1-day Workshop `Breathing Rhythms` for music students at the Sage in Newcastle Gateshead

October 04, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends,

Our Autumn Journey continues. This time we start the little North-Eastern UK tour with 2 workshops at the Sage in Newcastle Gateshead, which will be runned by Asaf Sirkis and myself. Frank and Kevin will join us on Saturday for the gig at The Globe!

Workshop`Breathing Rhythms`:

The way to the North-East part of England was pretty long but very enjoyable. It was the first opportunity for me to visit this area. The weather was fabulous. Still very sunny and warm.

As always I`ve prepared some goodies for the road ;-):

Idyllic landscapes...

Passing Sherwood Forest we`ve realised that Robin obviously changed his way of locomotion:

Fantastic, constantly changing light and shadow play on the sky...

This one was really special:

After many hours of driving we`ve finally reached Newcastle. It was already dark when we got to the hotel. Tomorrow, early morning we will start the workshop at The Sage.

In the morning we drove to the futuristic building of The Sage. Some "blue in greens" on the way:

As the sense of humor never abandones us, as we first saw the Sage, we couldn`t resist using the highly romantic comparison to the large intestine ;-D:

Cool graffitis at the backyard:

Co-Musica. Indeed! :-)

`BREATHING RHYTHMS` - THE WORKSHOP:

There were around 35 young instrumentalists and singers participating in the workshop. We worked together 8 hours with a lunch break inbetween. In the afternoon all the participants have been divided into 4 groups and each group created some music to Asaf`s Konnakol composition. We`vefinished the workshop with a little performance of each group:

It was a worky and productive day with loads of fun and creativity. Many thanks to the organisators of the workshop for having us and to all the talented young musicians for the great work!

Time to go to hotel and see you tomorrow for another workshop at the Sage. This time we will work with a different group of participants. We`re very much looking forward to it! I will also show you a bit more of this amazing architecture and some exhibition art works from The Sage. Good evening and...

Good night everyone!

See you again tomorrow at The Sage! Here an amber tree painted by night on the window of our touring van :-)

Brrrr, nights are geting colder and colder....

and here what the cold night made with my reflection in the car - mirror, I like the siluette of my cam ;-):

Much love,

Sylwia

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Sirkis/Bialas IQ Autumn Tour 2016, 23.09 at The Voicebox, Derby, UK

September 25, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends,

The Autumn season has began and we`ve opened it playing at The Voicebox in Derby. This time we`ve featured John Turville on the piano and keys. John lives in London but his roots are in Derby, so we had a pleasure to meet his family at the gig.

Me and Asaf went on the road straight from the airports. I came back from my university teaching phase in Germany and Asaf returned from his gigs in Israel.

Here some adventures and impressions from the road to Derby!:

The traffic on the way to the venue was horendous... At least we had enough time to enjoy Autumn landscapes and warmth of the sun...

Gaps between cars on the highway were very small and we were pushed to move forward in a snail tempo...It was difficult to concentrate all the time. We even had a small accident with another car driving before our van, but fortunately nothing serious happened and everybody could continue the drive...

At some point I started to count the sheep on the sky. There was a sheep festival above our heads, just see yourself ;-)! :

The smell of Fall in progress...

A very hip old Lotus transported on the platform :-):

We got to the venue pretty late and had a very little time to set up the gear and make a soundcheck. It was a record for me to manage the entire set up in 45 min. I felt very thankful that the guys helped me with carrying equipment. We`re a good team...We were able to start the gig without any delays...weeyheyy

Here some pictures from the venue:

A beautiful high wooden ceiling:

Soundcheck:

I love those parts of touring when nobody bothers pretending seriousness :-)))

:-))))))!!!!!!

It was a really lovely and enjoyable gig in a nice and cosy venue with an attentive audience, careing promoter & friendly staff. Some really nice chats inbetween the sets.

Thanks for having us at the Voicebox!

I couldn`t stop myself from sharing with you Kev`s enthusiastic bouncy packing - attitude :-DDDDD:

We had to hurry up with setting off, cause Asaf had to fly to Istanbul the next early morning...Time to say good bye to everyone and came back on the road again!

On the way to London we had a few close encounters with some unidentify flying objects:

Encounter I, UFO kidnaps a long distant lorry driver:

Encounter II, UFO changes the molecular structure of the moon

Encounter III, 2 UFO`s transport a shiny bollock to the mothership.

Encounter IV, Bollocks of light creating crop circles on M1

Yes, my imagination has no limits, I know. Some women became mean when they get tired - I only get some flashy ideas and a funny mood! ;-))))

The drive back from the gig was very fast but exciting as you could see ;-).

Time to bring Kevin to Luton Train - Station... Here a trippy graffiti I`ve spotted on the parking space...

Good Night Kev, have a safe trip home and some proper rest.

Good night Aliens! Safe trip home! :-)

Good night my friends, see you soon in Newcastle!

Much love from Sylwia & the Sirkis/Bialas IQ

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Workshop `Breathing Rhythms`at the Planet Drum in London - NOVEMBER 18th !

September 14, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Dear Friends and Music Lovers,

I`d like to announce a forthcoming workshop at the Planet Drum School in London: NOVEMBER 18th 2016!

It will be a huge pleasure to teach there together with Asaf Sirkis!

For all the details and the submission form klick HERE.

To read the EPK of the workshop klick HERE.

We will be very happy to meet you there!

Sylwia Bialas & Asaf Sirkis

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Sirkis/Bialas IQ Summer Tour, Norwich Jazz Weekender, Norwich, UK

September 08, 2016 / Sylwia Bialas

Hello Dear Friends,

Here some impressions from our trip to Norwich. It was a pleasure to be one of the music acts at the Norwich Jazz Weekender and to share the stage with many great artists:

Here the announcement of our gig:

Bildschirmfoto 2016-09-06 um 14.48.27.jpg

Let`s go!

"Australian" landscapes on the way to Norwich:

As always some food for the road. This time I made some raw crackers, toffis and a fragrant carrot cake:

Sky full of Dementors. A musician friend, Andi told me that "expecto patronum" is the only thing that could help, so I tried...:

As you can see the right magic-spells work always:

Here some interresting architecture of Norwich City:

Looks like Willy Wonka went from sugary to greasy ;-):

A promising sign in front of the club:

Color of the Norwich Jazz Club`s gate was undeniably fluorescent:

Here the venue (picture from the website of the club). I was too bussy loading off the gear so I didn`t manage to make many pics. Everything had to go very fast because there were more bands waiting to perform.

It was a real fun to play a gig at the Norwich Jazz club and then listen to some other, great gigs. We were taken care of very well and the content, smiling faces of the audience spoke for themselves. A nice one, Norwich - thanks for having us!

Here some images of the city by night:

Well....:-) You never know what could await you in one of the dark alleys...This is a British version of "Piszczalka"- the "cheerful devil" from a polish book for kids.

For all of my friends from Poland - do you remember this beautiful, forgotten movie from our childhood? So creepy and so magically awesome :-). Such a pity there`s no english version of this one... Check the synth sounds in the soundtrack :-))):

The way home was leading us through some extremely dark landscapes. I could swear to see "Piszczalka" standing by the road holding his overdimensional fork ;-)

This time I couldn`t catch Frank and Kev on any of the pics as they travelled separately to the gig, but I found a perfect embarracing one with loads of love to you, guys ;-)))) :

Good night everybody. I`m going to Germany soon to do my university work and we will meet on the road again on the 23rd of September. Next station - Derby!

Much love,

Sylwia

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