Jim's biography

'luminously beautiful music'

Jonathan Coe - The Observer

Jim Sutherland’s career has ranged across the entire spectrum of musical genres and includes a string of major commissions for film, TV and theatre.

He has composed scores for more than 70 film and TV productions, including:

The Edge of Dreaming – Multi-award winning film (2010)
Wasted – Best of the Fest at the Edinburgh International Film festival (2009)
New Town – Pilot for UK BBC Network series (2009)
Trouble Sleeping – Multi-award winning feature film with a refugee theme for which Jim engaged Middle Eastern and Balkan musicians to perform his original score (2008)
10 New Commandments – Best of Fest at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2008)
Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle – Acclaimed Gaelic film, premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival (2007)
Festival – Best Film at the British Comedy Awards, multi-award winning (2004).

Jim specialises in the creation of bespoke ensembles, from small groups to full orchestras such as La Banda Europa and the True North Orchestra. Celtic Connections commissioned him to write two new pieces for La Banda Europa (featuring the 2m long Fujara flute from Slovakia) to premiere at Celtic Connections 2009. In 2007, he collaborated to create a large scale spectacular in Newcastle and Falkirk incorporating La Banda Europa, two boy sopranos from the Vienna Boys' Choir, a 40 strong choir and 20 strong drumming group (with UZ events and Hilary Westlake, former artistic director of Euro-Disney).

Jim has received commissions for theatre including ‘Cargo’, a large scale open air performance on the theme of migration, that premiered at the Edinburgh Mela 2010 and went on to enjoy critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2009, his score for ‘The Gathering’, performed by the True North Orchestra, was presented to an audience of 9,000 on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle.

He has performed and recorded with such luminaries as The Chieftains, Plant and Page (Led Zeppelin), The Bundhu Boys, Billy Bragg, Maddy Prior and June Tabor, Emmylou Harris, and the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band!

He has produced more than 60 albums including 2 for Salsa Celtica and 3 for Shooglenifty.
He produced the debut album, Young Forever (Rough Trade), by hotly-tipped roots/pop combo Aberfeldy. ‘Summer’s gone’, from this album, was used for a US Diet Coke ad in 2007.

For Celtic Connections 2005, he premiered a brand-new multi-media song suite, Cold Weather Dancing, featuring a nine-piece band and live video mixing.

His influential folk tune compositions have been recorded on more than one hundred CDs by artists all over the world including Four Men And A Dog, Battlefield Band, Shooglenifty, The Easy Club, Charlie Lennon, Simon Thoumire, Óige, Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band, The Royal Scots Band, ScottishPower Pipe Band, The 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band and many more.

The Flow Country, a book of 60 of Jim's tunes, was published but is now out of print.

In 2005 he was keynote speaker at The Musicworks, the UK's New Music Convention and Festival.

As a founder member of pop trio, The Lanterns, he was signed to Sony as a songwriter in 1997. ‘Highrise Town’, debut single from the widely-praised album, ‘Illuminate Yer Heid’, earned a UK Top 40 place and ‘Winter in my Heart’ reached number two in the dance charts.

Listen to Jim's music while you browse the site.