I’ve always been fascinated by musicians who start their journey with the classical music genre and then decide to break free from it at some point in their journey. It’s a very rich genre and it lures you as there is always more to accomplish in it, yet very restricting in its own way. Alec Shea, originally from Australia, grew up surrounded by classical music, so he decided to follow his passion and studied Audio Engineering and Sound Production, opening more diverse musical abilities and possibilities. He later went on an exploring adventure and worked as a freelance composer. Sound designer and voice designer while traveling around the world. Recently, he’s been settling in Tokyo, Japan where he got the chance to work on game and animation soundtrack projects, where he does sound design, voice acting, and more, one of which included a track featuring the famous vocalist, Emi Evans. Some of these games and projects include Corpse Factory, Kanji Combat, Pitch Black Serenade, and many others.
‘Plane Prepared Vinyl Past’ is his first album to release as his own. It has a total of 7 tracks, one of which is performed in collaboration with David Cho, who plays violin and guitar liven which adds a different and more rich ambiance. This song is called ‘Yumacha’; listening to this track, made me feel like I’m inside a music box. It’s dreamier than the other tracks on the album. The song was composed by David Cho, and Shea handled the production process for it. Moving to ‘Shibuya Coffee Shop in the Evening’, it has consistency and repetition in its musical context. It has a hypnotizing, chill vibe with some unusual beats and the same theme/motif maintained throughout. Followed by ‘Sunset café in Yokohama’ which still maintains the same motif and theme from the previous track, while elaborating more on it. The bass line in ‘Evening walk through Ueno Park’ is short, to the point and catchy. ‘The Lights at Night in Akihabara’ is unusual, it’s less comfortable than the rest of the track, riskier and eccentric in its musicality. Although each track has its own character and identity, yet they all fit together as one coherent and harmonious entity. A
The album takes you on a journey in Tokyo through the artist’s eyes, you explore Tokyo, its cozy cafes, calm streets, and charming lights through him. The guitar lines on all tracks (including Yumcha) are played by Josh Vasquez, and the violin on all tracks is played by Felix Pong. If you’ve been there before, you’ll see the city with a fresh eye and if you haven’t, you’ll get a good sense of what the city is like through his music. The titles of the songs are very descriptive and give you a hint on what to expect.