Seachd's composer, Jim Sutherland, in the news

The big band wolf (HERALD - 03.05.2007)

Many who enjoyed Annie Griffin's scurrilous film about the media at Edinburgh's arts jamboree, Festival, were particularly struck by its bold soundtrack of summery Mediterranean brass, which was both fitting and yet entirely not an obvious ingredient.

That music was by composer Jim Sutherland, a man whose frontline involvement in Scottish music dates back well over 20 years but whose name is usually recognised only by the cognoscenti. This weekend, the pan-European musical caravanserai that has grown from his work on that soundtrack makes its Scottish debut at Big in Falkirk, Scotland's international street-arts festival, in just the second public step of what is envisaged as a long musical journey.

Triumphant clash of many cultures (SCOTSMAN - 04.05.2007)

AMONG those congratulating Jim Sutherland in Gateshead on Sunday, following the first performance of his astonishing pan-European ensemble La Banda Europa, was a man who rushed up, shook him by the hand and declared, in a broad Geordie accent: "I just wanted to say that was brilliant. We're not used to this kind of thing heeah."

Understatement of the year, really. It's hard to think of anywhere that might be used to the kind of glorious rumpus that had just finished erupting from a temporary stage in Gateshead's Saltwell Park. It was generated by more than 30 musicians from several European countries, playing an array of instruments that must surely have never shared a stage before, but were united on this occasion not only by their players' nattily matching blue coats and grey periwigs but by the music itself...