Described as "hauntingly beautiful" (Overly Honest Movie Reviews), the melodies within Coughlan's compositions convey deeply personal and truthful emotion. Having grown up with a stutter he has always been fascinated by the idea of presenting an idea or telling his listeners a secret without the use of words. Thus his interest piano composition was born. 

Brought up in a musical family, Alastair quickly became involved in the performing arts. Perhaps rather ambitiously, he composed his first piece aged 14 for a full orchestra, entitled 'Rhapsody in C'. Since then he has gone on to continue playing piano and violin. Vocally his proudest moment was singing for Queen Elizabeth II at Crathie Kirk, Balmoral alongside his younger brother. 

 Alastair's music has been used in a variety of formats including scores for award-winning films and documentaries. His work has been played on a number of BBC programmes including BBC Music Introducing where his compositions were described as "beautiful pieces of music", and Alastair himself as "an artist whose name it might be worth writing down in a hurry".