Asaf was born in Israel in 1969. In the early 90s, having studied drums for seven years with David Rich, he started playing professionally with many jazz, rock, and free jazz artists in Israel such us; Harold Rubin, Albert Beger, Ari Brown, and Emmmanuel Bex to name a few. He played in various venues and festivals including the Jazz in the Red Sea Festival and the Israel Festival. Asaf was also involved in a variety of ethnic musics, playing with different klezmer groups and Middle Eastern music artists such as Yair Dalal and Eyal Sela. From 1994 he recorded and toured Europe with the Amir Perelman trio.

While still in Israel Asaf formed his own band, The Asaf Sirkis Trio, with which he toured Israel and recorded his first album, One Step Closer. His second project, The Inner Noise, was partly commissioned by the department of arts of the Tel-Aviv City Council, and was performed around Israel in 1997-8.



In April 1999 Asaf moved to London where he soon became a part of the UK jazz and world music scene. During that year he started working with Adel Salameh, a

Palestinian Aud player/composer, as well as Steve Lodder and Mike Outram with whom he reformed his own band, The Inner Noise. Between 2000 to 2005 Asaf was a regular member of Gilad Atzmon's Orient House Ensemble. This band has recorded four albums for Enja Records and toured Europe frequently. Their album 'Exile' has won 'Best CD of the Year' at the BBC Jazz Award 2003 as well as in Time-Out 'Reviewer's Pick' (by John Lewis). The band was nominated for the BBC jazz award 2004 as 'Best Band'.

Asaf also plays/played/recorded with other artists in the UK and in Europe, including Chick Corea, Tim Garland, Larry Coryell, Gary Husband, Mark Egan, Andy Sheppard, John Taylor, Norma Winstone, Lenny Stern, David Binney, Dave Liebman, Paul Bollenback (NY), Julian Siegel Quartet, John Law, Peter King, Stan Sulzman, Barbaros Erkose (Turkey), Antonio Zambrini, Ari Brown (Chicago), Bela Szakcsi-Lokatos (Hungary), Glauco Venier (Italy), Yuri Goloubev (Russia), Klaus Gesing (Austria), Christoph Spendel (Germany), Eyal Maoz (NY), Sigi Finkel (Austria), Carlos Barretto (Portugal), Simon Fisher Turner, Phil Robson, Arnie Somogyi, Martin Speake, Mark Latimer, Reem Kelani, Christine Tobin, Nicolas Meier Tom Arthurs, John Etherigde and more.