Amnesty International Japan welcomed Alex not only as an active member but as a spokesperson for different causes close to his heart as we were entering the second decade of the year 2000. It was during that time and through his work with Amnesty International where he strongly connected with a guy called Akimi, with whom he exchanged a lot knowing he was going though several severe phases of deep depression. He was a real music fan and the connection grew stronger after a few months, until… nothing. We had just moved into a former church near Montreal, and as we were almost ready to start working on YFE’s new concept album Vague Souvenir, Alex wanted to go to Japan and work on a short movie he called Voyage à la Mer. Alex kept chasing Akimi without any response, which worried him a lot, and started to ask around where he was until the morning of our departure for Tokyo, a message came in from his mother saying, “Please meet me, Akimi took his life a few weeks ago.”