Tim Garland - Songs To The North Sky (2014) FLAC

Songs to the North Sky is the remarkable and bold new work by Tim Garland. The first half of this double album features Lighthouse, Garland s expandable small group celebrating a new chapter to mark its tenth year. Garland and the astonishing percussion of Asaf Sirkis are joined here by three of the most talented pianists working in jazz today: Jason Rebello, Geoffrey Keezer and John Turville. Bassist Kevin Glasgow and guitarist Ant Law are newcomers to the Lighthouse project, but typically, Garland has devised perfect spaces in which their two singular talents can flourish. Garland himself has rarely played with such exhilarating freedom. Songs to the North Sky, for orchestral strings, both jazz and classical percussion, and Garland as soloist, takes up the other half of this recording. It reflects Garland s ten years association with (and frequent displacement from) northeast England, its constantly changing cloudscapes and wild seas. In its instrumental virtuosity and compositional sophistication, Songs to the North Sky is the closest thing yet we have to the Full Garland. This will delight existing fans, and serve as an ideal primer for those yet to be acquainted with one of the most remarkable British musicians of his generation.