Tim Garland / Moment Of Departure
Release Date: 3rd May 2024
Double CD, Digital & Double Vinyl Formats / UBU0155
Tim Garland (Photographer: Stefan Booth)
Ubuntu Music, in collaboration with ECN Music, is delighted to announce the signing of composer/arranger/musician Tim Garland, for the release of Moment of Departure, an extraordinary project.
This is the most ambitious project of Tim's stellar career, with a celebration of Lighthouse Trio's 20th Anniversary (Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis), along with a stunning display of Tim's prowess as a composer and arranger with the Britten Sinfonia, featuring violinist Thomas Gould, along with trumpet ace Yazz Ahmed performing as a special guest on one track.
Writer/musician/broadcaster/jazz historian Alyn Shipton wrote the compelling liner notes for the album, capturing the essence of this masterpiece.
Lighthouse Trio: Gwilym Simcock, Asaf Sirkis, Tim Garland
Tim, in his own words, describes the project: “That Moment of Departure, from the known, the notated, towards something new is a shout of fearless freedom. The compositions on this album all have crucial and varied relationships with improvised music, from string orchestra to intimate trio, and completely free-form music. Classical influences and visual art have informed me, as much as my jazz heart. The series of paintings called Sail To Hope, by Esra Kizir Gokcen, provide a backbone of inspiration for the first disc’s music. The subject of journeying into the unknown, as well as the influence of Turkish rhythms, create the background atmosphere whilst maintaining the spaciousness and freedom for the jazz soloists.”
Tim continues, describing in detail the music contained within each of the two parts of this release:
PART ONE: “‘Winds Of Hope’, ‘Trails’, ‘No Horizon and ‘The Impossible Self’ show the trio in full flight - with the string orchestra guesting on the opening track which has an almost fanfare-like quality. The others are more searching, reaching an eccentric and virtuosic climax on track four - a kind of searching for the impossible!
“Continuing along, ‘Sub Vita’ invites Yazz Ahmed, whose beautiful flugelhorn sound depicts life under our oceans here.
“Moment Of Departure, the title track, is a composition built around recorded spontaneous improvisations, scored for string orchestra, the normal order of ‘improvising over a composition’ is reversed, the orchestral score is composed around the improvs, with a climax joining the material together with angular driving rhythms.
“The final sparse ‘Moment Of Arrival’ is an open ended coda, featuring the haunting bass clarinet.”
Thomas Gould, Tim Garland (Photographer: Laura Bodo)
PART TWO: “This features violinist Thomas Gould joining The Lighthouse Trio firstly in an interpretation of Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’. ‘Approaching Winter’ also features the string section of the Britten Sinfonia and demands all four soloists to depart from the written page into freewheeling expressivity and jazz improvisation, whilst the composition honours all of Vivaldi’s themes, deriving the “opened up” sections, from them.
“’The Forever Seed’ was written two years earlier. I had wanted to write a concerto for Thomas for a long time and, enjoying his ability to loosen himself from the written page, created improvised interludes between the movements. I do not play on this but conducted the orchestra, which includes a cimbalom. This instrument acts rather like glue, playing in the improvised sections along with Simcock and Gould, as well as the string orchestra. The music here is a nostalgic dedication to the pastoral classical music I heard in the family home as a child.”
Tim Garland (Photographer: Stefan Booth)
Concerning his new relationship with the Ubuntu Music record label, Tim elaborates: “I am delighted to be partnering with Ubuntu on this, my most ambitious release to date: ‘Moment Of Departure’ has allowed me to exercise my passion as composer and inhabit the hybrid worlds within the musical genres I love so much. I thank Martin (Hummel) and the Ubuntu team for having faith in this double release!”
Martin Hummel, Director of Ubuntu Music, concludes: “Tim always has been and remains one of my absolute favourite artists, as a composer, arranger and as a multi-instrumentalist. When the opportunity surfaced to represent what is arguably the most ambitious undertaking of his illustrious career, it was a dream come true, for the label and for me. ‘Moment Of Departure’ is a mesmerizing musical journey of two halves: the 20th anniversary of the Lighthouse Trio, and an extension of this by showcasing Tim’s compositional and arrangement skills to also include the Britten Sinfonia orchestra, featuring the exceptional talent of violinist Thomas Gould. The artwork for the project was created by the gifted painter, Esra Kizir Gokcen, depicting the plight into the unknown. The music refuses to be categorized. Is it Jazz? Classical? ‘Jazzical’? ‘Clazz’? Frankly, it really doesn’t matter. Its effect will draw listeners from various musical persuasions to celebrate a strikingly exceptional cacophony of genres to please the head, the heart and the soul. We are absolutely delighted to have Tim join the Ubuntu Music Family. May this be the start of many more to come on our journey together.”
The Lighthouse Trio, in a rehearsal session for Trails. The finished version appears on the album.
For further information, please contact:
Tim Garland (Artist): timgarland@me.com
Emma Perry/UK Publicity: emma@ecnmusic.com
Martin Hummel/Ubuntu Music (Worldwide): martin@ubuntumanagementgroup.com
Tim Garland (Photographer: Stefan Booth)
BIOGRAPHY
Throughout an international career starting in the late 1980’s, Tim Garland has become known as a unique polymath in the UK’s music scene.
His first break as saxophonist was joining Ronnie Scott's band age 23. Later he was to join Chick Corea as a regular member of several globe-trotting projects over a seventeen year period including The Vigil. Playing tenor and soprano saxes, bass clarinet, and flute, he also won a Grammy for his symphonic orchestrations on Corea’s The New Crystal Silence album from 2007.
Garland has fulfilled commissions from several of the world’s top orchestras, including a double concerto from the LSO, a piano concerto for Gwilym Simcock from The Royal Northern Sinfonia, with whom he went on to record three albums, a cello and sax concerto from the CBSO, and a sax concerto from the BBC Concert Orchestra.
His concert works continue to celebrate the fertile ground between modern composition and jazz. His creative arranging skills have won much praise from such diverse artists as Jean Luc Ponty, John Patitucci, The Royal Holloway and Westminster Choirs, the Catalan National Cobla Group, the LPO, the London Session Orchestra, NYJO as well as Chick Corea.
His work is often inspired by, but not limited to, the jazz idiom, whilst his celebrated virtuosity as a saxophonist maintains his position as one of the UK’s most unique and authentic jazz voices.
In 2016 he premiered Re:Focus (a re-imagining of the Getz /Sauter project of 1962 ‘Focus’) to a full house at London’s Wigmore Hall, which in 2020 has been released for public purchase. Luca’s Winter, a 100-minute work for big band, was performed at Manchester’s Royal Northern College Of Music (where he held an international post as research fellow).
As a band leader and co-leader, he is responsible for much of the output of the groups; Lammas, The Underground Orchestra, Storms / Nocturnes (feat. Joe Locke and Geoffrey Keezer), Acoustic Triangle, the last few years of Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, the duet with Jason Rebello and The Lighthouse Trio, (featuring Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis). This final group makes a 20th anniversary come-back tour and release during 2024!
