Building upon the national and international success of our previous project, Bliain Le Baisteach, the artists decided to develop a further collaborative project of this nature - Cóisir an tSionnan (The Shannon Suite). We have had a long fascination with, and interest in, the River Shannon, which is Ireland's largest river. It can metaphorically be seen as the 'spine of Ireland'.

In September 2000, we visited the Parteen Salmon Breeding Programme on the River Shannon, which is managed by the ESB (Electricity Supply Board). We approached Paddy Barry (ESB) and Gerard Gough (ESB Fisheries Manager) and were given access to their data on salmon stocks and insight into their methods of collecting and monitoring information about life in the river. We discussed how to make music from the data and we then formally approached the ESB to become part of the project - to develop Cóisir an tSionnan as a multimedia collaboration...