‘Inner Spaces’ by Strands | “An ode to the land, to the spaces we have all missed and the power of music to transport us”
Exclusive album premiere of ‘Inner Spaces’ by Strands. Escaping a locked-down in Dublin, Irish musician Strands (aka Stephen Shannon) dusts off his vintage synths and reimagines favourite outdoor trails and locations in county Wicklow, Ireland.
Escaping a locked-down Dublin, Irish musician Strands (aka Stephen Shannon) dusts off his vintage synths and reimagines favourite outdoor trails and locations in county Wicklow, Ireland.
‘Inner Spaces’, released by Remote Town, is an expansive, multi-layered listen – both propulsive and meditative – that’s rooted in nature. Taking inspiration from William Onyeabor, Wendy Carlos, and Rival Consoles among others, Inner Spaces is an album full of automating, overlapping synth arpeggios. Tracks revisit stormy wind-swept coastlines (track: ‘Five Mile Point’); panoramic views of Dublin (‘Kippure’) and Wales (‘Sugarloaf’); breathtaking mountain lakes (‘Tay’); 5000 year old burial chambers (‘Seefin’) and ghosts of free parties on golden beaches (‘Silver Strands’). It celebrates the struggle, joy & solitude of the outdoor trail and the parallel uncertainty of recent times.
“I grew up in a small village in Co. Wicklow, Ireland between the mountains and the sea. I spent my summers taking long hikes through fields, forests and along coastlines, listening to music on my Walkman”, says Stephen. “Last year, with travel restrictions in place, I compiled a list of all of the places in Wicklow I really wanted to revisit. I began making a piece of music for each location, visualising these spaces. Each track is about a space remembered in Wicklow (known as the garden of Ireland); all my past journeys there and how it felt to return to these places post-lockdown”. “Inner Spaces is both an ode to the land, to the spaces we have all missed and the power of music to transport us”.
Strands is the solo moniker of Stephen Shannon, a composer and music producer based in Dublin, Ireland, who has recorded and released original music as a member of Halfset, Strands and the duo Mount Alaska (251 Records). As Mount Alaska, Steve has composed music for the TV series Normal People (BBC / Hulu) and remixed artists such as Arcade (Epic), Froth (Wichita Recordings) and Atli Örvarsson (Inni Music). He has composed original live scores for George A Romero zombie classic ‘Night Of The Living Dead’, ‘Der Golem’, Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ (1927).
Strands by Thomas McGraw Lewis
Stephen Shannon / Strands Official Website / Instagram / Twitter / Apple Music / Spotify
Remote Town SoundCloud / Bandcamp
