MEOKO Presents: Donuts and Coffee with Mike Shannon and DeWalta

Mike Shannon and DeWalta are a musical duo who possess the effortless ease of a married couple, and they ooze a warmth that is seemingly at odds with their penchant for thunderous techno that has been eked out of intimidatingly monolithic hardware. Both prodigious electronic musicians in their own right, Ontario-born Mike Shannon first met DeWalta (the alias of native German David Koch) through friends in Berlin the best part of a decade ago, and the two have been working together ever since.

Over the past 15 years Mike Shannon has positioned himself at the apex of the techno landscape with an internationally recognised back catalogue of wildly successful albums, singles and remixes shared across the genre’s finest labels, including Plus 8, Force Inc. and ~Scape. The Canadian has juggled this with acting as head of the consistently excellent Cynosure label, deploying his intrinsic understanding of what whips up dancefloors into some nifty A&R work. DeWalta in comparison is a newbie to the scene, but no less talented. Bubbling up in 2007, the conservatory-trained jazz musician quickly turned his hand to making house and techno bombs. It wasn’t long before he was snapped up by a host of imprints including Vakant, Salon, Kalk Pets/Karaoke Kalk and his own well-received label Meander.