Mount Alaska is a music project from Dublin production duo, Stephen Shannon and Cillian Mc Donnell. Seasoned stalwarts of the Irish music industry, the former members of Halfset returned in 2016 to release their debut single, Sine, Cosine, Tangent, on Language Recordings. The pair met in a Dublin club 25 years ago this month, and since then they’ve been digesting, discussing and dissecting music together. For the last decade they have played in bands together, recorded on other people’s music together, toured as backing musicians together, DJ’d together, and experimented making and releasing electronic music together. Stephen Shannon is a composer and music producer who works out of his own studio in Dublin, Experimental Audio. With over 20 years’ experience in the music industry, he has produced award-winning albums, and worked with international labels such as Real World, Domino Records and Chemikal Underground. He has also recorded and released music as a member of Halfset and Strands. Stephen writes and composes for film, documentaries and TV, and his most recent feature film work includes an adaptation of Daniel Woodrell’s Tomato Red, directed by Juanita Williams, and Brian O’Malley’s gothic horror, The Lodgers. Cillian Mc Donnell was a founding member of independent record label, music/is/for/losers, and former drummer with Halfset, Jubilee Allstars, and Dot Creek, while also being one half of Dublin production duo, Hidden Fortress, and co-founder of Fortress Records. After Halfset, Stephen and Cillian started working together in 2012, spending time in isolated places to help them focus on a completely new sound, creating dozens of songs in the process. The pair followed up their debut single with a string of critically acclaimed releases in 2017, on their own independent label, Language Recordings. Following a number of live shows and festival appearances at All Together Now, Another Love Story, Metropolis, and Forbidden Fruit, Shannon and Mc Donnell released their debut EP, Asterisk, in October 2018. Their most recent single, Triant?in, was released in May, 2019, but it is 11 years since the duo have released an album together (as part of Halfset), and eight years since Shannon released his debut album (under the name Strands). Wave Atlas: Season One will be their debut full length, and their first release on 251 Records (a partner label of Faction Records), an Irish record label specialising in jazz, traditional, instrumental and contemporary orchestral music. "Mount Alaska’s music features rushes of digital celestial notes, and a sense of instrumental drama informed by modern electronic music and the burgeoning contemporary classical movement. Their music scales heights and reaches for big moments of release"(The Irish Times) "Textured, grandiose electronic music. Striking the perfect balance between ambient and electronic - a genre rarely as effectively explored in the current Irish music scene" (Nialler9)
