The latest version of the Lighthouse Project is a quartet featuring Mike Outram - guitar, Pat Bettison - bass and harmonica, and continues an evolutionary partnership with Asaf Sirkis who brings the same customized kit including Hang Drum and Udu for this band.
Spanish, Middle-Eastern and Brazilian influences ring within the context of intelligent compositions
and lyrical, unique playing....
Born from Garland’s award winning project from 2005 - “If The Sea Replied”- where this unique trio is joined by a string orchestra, and magical recorded solo improvisations inside a lighthouse) the trio has become Garlands main focus for live performance.
The core trio, Asaf Sirkis – (playing a custom built percussion set of frame drums, bass Udu, Hang drum and more), Garland on saxes and bass clarinet, and celebrated young pianist Gwilym Simcock, are an orchestra unto themselves.
Mixing a range of rhythms from the Middle East, Spain and South America with highly interactive and lyrical jazz. The trio have collaborated with a range of diverse artists from various cultural backgrounds with an openness toward jazz. Concerts have featured superb dancer Sheron Wray, known for her improvisational solo work and with Jazz Xchange (see gallery page) and Carles Benenvent, bass player with Flamenco maestro Paco DeLucia and Chick Corea.
As Garland is known also for his work with orchestras, this trio is designed also for integration with orchestral forces, Asafs percussion being half the volume of a standard drum kit. The brand new CD “LIBRA” features the trio at their very best and also includes the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a set of pieces called Frontier, recorded at the worlds most famous studio, Abbey Road Studio Two.
