Guest blog by Jim Sutherland
We’ve been developing Struileag /Shore to Shore for two and a half years now. It’s been full of surprises! The project is about the Scots Gaelic diaspora which is spread across the world. We’ve been exploring the furthest reaches of this remarkable people, scattered to the winds!

Guest blog by Jim Sutherland

We’ve been developing Struileag /Shore to Shore for two and a half years now. It’s been full of surprises! The project is about the Scots Gaelic diaspora which is spread across the world. We’ve been exploring the furthest reaches of this remarkable people, scattered to the winds!

History isn’t a thing of the past, we’re making it now. Struileag has commissioned poetry and lyrics from 20 Gaelic writers from established bards to young upstarts and I’ve been scoring music to it. What an amazing process it is. I get sent the text, along with a translation, (I have made a stab at learning Gaelic but not doing well) and also an audio recording of the poet reciting the piece so that I can get a feel for the sounds of the words as well as an understanding of the piece. Often it is immediately apparent what I should do with the piece musically. Other pieces have taken time in gestation. My favourite piece is usually the one I am working on at the moment, currently a tango dubstep piece about homelessness with text written by Peter MacKay. The piece will be performed by Corvid our Gaelic rapper who we brought all the way over from Vancouver to work with us! We have my very favourite Gaelic singers on the bill and some amazing instrumentalists to make up a 20 piece band. We will also have dance and video design. It’s gonna be a big show in Glasgow during the Commonwealth games period. (see below)

We are also creating a 60min TV arts show, a book of Gaelic poetry and essays, a CD and an online storytelling project which will allow you to browse some of our curated stories from around the diaspora about interactions between Highlanders and Native American Indians or tales of the Scots who made it to Russia and influenced art and architecture greatly in the country. You will be able to tell your own story or add yourself to others. We’ll be collecting recipes, songs, pictures, family histories, stories and messages from all over the world!

We will be bringing the project out to the diaspora that we are celebrating, starting with Canada and USA in April and the Chile, Argentina and Russia in May/June. This will be as part of our community engagement for the project. We want to meet the sons and daughters of the diaspora, we want to hear the stories and encourage folks take part in the story telling project. We’re looking for volunteers all over the world who will help to encourage others to take part. We want to join up the dots with this project and tell this amazing story and have it told by the people who live it every day.

There are other ways to take part in the project. We have recently launched a Gaelic poetry competition for all ages with cash prizes as well as the very special Clan Currie award which was very kindly donated by the Clan Currie Society. For more info on the poetry competition please visithttp://www.struileag.com/en/Poetry/Poetry-Competition

Hope to see you at our Glasgow show on the 28th of July!

Jim Sutherland is a Scottish composer, music producer and songwriter based in Edinburgh. He composes and produces music for film, TV, theatre and large scale projects. Find out more about the project here.