TOM LYNE
Tom Lyne, originally from Edmonton, Canada, is a sound designer, composer, and bassist/musician located in Pathhead, Midlothian. Having been a professional jazz bassist and composer for more than 35 years, Tom also works as a recording engineer, music producer and sound designer for film, theatre, and video and he loves to cook and make bread.
In spring 2020, Tom completed a MSc in Sound Design at Napier University in Edinburgh and wrote a masters dissertation investigating the use of sound to enhance narrative. This interest led to work documenting natural locations and exploring narratives found within our local environments.
In December 2020, Tom was awarded Creative Scotland funding to develop these ideas further using immersive Ambisonic field recording equipment in a project called ‘Surrounded by Midlothian’. These sound effects recordings were then used to produce experimental and electronic music that also includes experimental instruments like aeolian harps, metal plates, hydrophones, and a selection of more conventional instruments.
Previous education includes BMus with distinction in Jazz Bass from McGill University in Montreal, 1991 and a Diploma in Music (1986) from Grant MacEwan College, Edmonton, Alberta.
SOPHIE BANCROFT
Sophie Bancroft is a singer and songwriter with a unique blend of jazz and folk influences. She has released nine CDs to date including Songs which was listed as one of The Herald’s top 50 Scottish albums of 2015. Monday Nights, the most recent release from her duo Bancroft & Lyne was listed in Jazzviews top jazz albums of 2020. Her music has been used on HBO’s award winning TV series Six Feet Under and CSI, and recorded by top jazz vocalists including Liane Carroll with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Sophie also co-leads The Pathhead Choir, is a founder member of the award-winning Pathhead Music Collective, and of Jazz Forward, a collective music organisation representing and showcasing some of the original jazz being written in Scotland.
In 2024 Sophie was music director and composer for Dementia The Musical written by Ron Coleman, which was funded by Creative Scotland’s touring fund to tour the major theatres in Scotland in autumn 2024.
In 2019 she was awarded a Masters with distinction in Creative Writing and more recently she has expanded her creative practice to include creative writing, photography and film-making. Her first short film (S)kin about a mother’s hands won best documentary short at the
8&HalFilm Awards and was screened at the Women Over Fifty Film Festival – WOFFF in 2021 and Italian film festival Cinema D’Idea in 2022. Her following short film, Old Mother Blackbird, is a story about maternal love and empty nests inspired by a brave and loyal blackbird who nested in Sophie’s own garden. The music and words are written and performed by Sophie, and her hand-made collage is used to illustrate the story. It was first screened at the Women Over Fifty Film Festival (WOFFF) in 2023 and has been part of Virgin Atlantic’s inflight entertainment package since June 2024. The film has also been made into a children’s book and a series of greeting cards.
Sophie’s creative work has often reflected her own personal story. Her current work is inspired by the perspectives of middle age. She has recently collaborated on creative ageing projects with her local choir and with arts organisation Deepness Dementia Media.
Sophie has taught at many of the major music universities in Scotland – currently at the Reid School of Music, Edinburgh University – as well as lecturing and leading workshops on song-writing in numerous secondary schools and to student music teachers. She also runs and leads songwriting workshops around the UK with Sara Colman. In 2019 she presented a songwriting seminar at the Scottish Association of Music Educators Conference. In 2023 she designed, led and facilitated a songwriting project – Here We Are – with the older members of The Pathhead Choir to produce a set of songs about life from an older viewpoint which were performed at concerts around the Lothians
Sophie completed training by Lapidus Scotland to become a facilitator for Writing For Wellbeing groups in 2021 and co-leads HeidSpace, a monthly writing for wellbeing group in Pathhead.