Genesis

VallaStudios—formerly VallaSounds—was originally established as a pen name for my compositions in 2017, when I first migrated from using only notation software to my first digital audio workstation. Since then, I have developed as a composer and have established VallaStudios as a registered business providing music for visual media projects across the internet. In order to provide a portfolio of my work and compositional style to my clients, I decided to create GENESIS. This album of self-expressive music of various genres allows me to both showcase my own work as well as what I am capable of producing for future clients. On this page, you can hear the final masters of the tracks headed for the album before the official release, as well as read some notes on each track themselves. On that note, I hope you enjoy listening to my work.

1. Arrival

“Arrival” is a new-age track meant to act as a prelude to GENESIS, and it is heavily inspired by the new-age music I have listened to over the last few years. I recorded the ambience in the background of the track myself on a hiking trail, and I let myself move freely between chords whilst drawing the music back in with melodic structure from time to time. Whilst this track is certainly free of structure, there are elements that are representative of my musical style within the graceful melody. I had a lot of fun writing this track, and I hope that you enjoy listening to it as well.

2. Paranoia

“Paranoia” is a track made to encompass the feeling of trudging into the unknown. Loosely inspired by the incredible soundtracks of Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I aimed to use instruments typically heard in high-fantasy media as well as various ambience synths and sound effects to create a slowly-developing descent into one’s paranoia.

3. Virus Farm

“Virus Farm” is a track that I made in honor of one of the biggest musical inspirations to myself. Masafumi Takada, who worked on both the Danganronpa series’ music as well as Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (and its sequel, Hacker’s Memory). Both of them were games I cherished growing up, and even now play from time to time. Their OSTs were incredibly influential to me, and I will always have a bit of Takada’s style mixed into my own from their influence on my writing.

4. Dollmaker

“Dollmaker” is a revised composition; in early-2020, I had originally created it to accompany the opening sequence of Henry Selick’s film, Coraline. I was attempting to recreate the atmosphere of the film without listening to the original (having not watched it in several years). This project would go on to be the reason I decided to focus on music for visual media rather than standard composition. For this reason, this track has a lot of sentimental value. In this track, I used a new instrument microphone and played the ending violin trio myself to test my mixing capabilities. The original composition still exists online, and is embedded below.

5. Sea Bunnies

“Sea Bunnies” is a cute little track I wrote as a love letter to the old Gamecube/Playstation 2-era games I grew up with. I played a lot of Ribbit King, Ape Escape 3, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, and other games that inspired my early love for soundtrack music. This song was originally a very mediocre, scrapped composition from 2018 (originally called Piccolo March), but after four years I decided to revamp it; and I am really glad I did!

6. Sunshowers

“Sunshowers” is a bittersweet song meant to convey many feelings. Sometimes you may feel sad but can’t put a pin on why. Maybe you have to say goodbye to a friend or loved one for what feels like a very long time. Or perhaps you had a difficult conversation with someone you care about and are struggling to heal from it. Whatever the experience, nowadays many people force themselves to be optimistic and push through these uncomfortable feelings—even if at times the world may seem to joyfully carry on while you carry a heavy heart, those sunshowers will lead to beautiful rainbows if you give yourself some time and sympathy.