Inside “Made of Light”: How an Uplifting Trance Idea Became Something Harder

Some tracks begin with a detailed plan. Others start with a single idea that refuses to disappear.

For “Made of Light,” the new collaboration between ALIMA and Simon T.P., everything started with a lead melody. Simon first showed me a demo containing the idea toward the end of 2025. I immediately liked what I heard. The melody already had a strong identity, and almost instantly I could imagine an entire track growing around it.

At that point, however, the track I imagined sounded very different from the one that eventually became “Made of Light.”

In my head, it was pure uplifting trance.

What followed was a production process that took the original idea through several stages, a long pause inside my ideas folder and eventually an unexpected encounter with harder electronic influences.

The result became one of the more unusual ALIMA releases so far.

The melody came first

Simon’s original lead idea was already well developed when I first heard it.

I did not want to fundamentally rewrite what made the melody interesting in the first place. Instead, I changed a small number of notes to improve the rhythmic flow and make the phrase easier to loop naturally inside an arrangement.

They were relatively small changes, but they made the melody feel more coherent to me and gave me the foundation I needed to start constructing a complete production around it.

From there, I opened Logic Pro and began building.

Drums, atmosphere, supporting melodic elements, transitions and the overall structure developed around that central lead. The sound design and the additional musical ideas were created as part of my own production process.

But like many ideas in music production, the project did not immediately become a finished song.

It eventually ended up in my ideas folder on the Mac.

And stayed there.

The track that almost remained an idea

I keep unfinished ideas because I have learned that an unfinished production is not necessarily a bad production.

Sometimes the timing simply is not right.

When I first worked on the track, I already heard potential in it, but I had not yet found the final identity that made the entire production click.

Several months later, I returned to the project.

That is when “Made of Light” really began to emerge.

The uplifting trance foundation was still there, but during further experimentation something unexpected happened.

The track became harder.

The harder elements were never part of the original plan

One of the most interesting things about “Made of Light” is that its harder direction was not planned from the beginning.

While experimenting with ideas using ChatGPT and Suno, elements appeared that leaned much more toward hardstyle – particularly in the rhythm and the character of the kick.

Initially, that was not what I had been looking for.

But sometimes an unexpected result immediately makes musical sense.

Instead of rejecting the direction simply because it did not fit my original plan, I listened to what it was doing to the track.

And I liked it.

A lot.

Trance and hardstyle are different genres, but they share enough DNA for the combination to feel surprisingly natural when the balance is right. Both can build enormous tension, both rely on powerful melodic moments and both can create that feeling of energy being released all at once.

That crossover gave “Made of Light” something the original uplifting trance concept did not have.

It made the track more aggressive without removing its emotional core.

Keeping the ALIMA identity

That balance became important.

I did not want to create a hardstyle track and simply put the ALIMA name on it. The goal became finding a point where the harder rhythmic elements could exist inside the emotional and melodic world that defines my music.

That is probably what I like most about the finished release.

“It started as uplifting trance.

It became something harder.”

– ALIMA

Despite the harder influences, “Made of Light” still clearly sounds like ALIMA.

The melodies, atmosphere and emotional direction are still there. The harder kick and rhythm simply give them a different framework.

For me, that makes the track less of a departure from ALIMA and more of an expansion of what the project can be.

The build-up and drop became the center of the track

“Made of Light” begins with a longer vocal introduction instead of immediately revealing its full energy.

The track gradually develops toward the main section, allowing the vocals and atmosphere to establish the emotional side first.

Then the energy changes quickly.

The drop arrives with considerably more force and introduces the harder rhythmic identity of the production.

For me, the build-up into the drop is the strongest moment of the entire track.

It represents everything the production eventually became: melody, tension, vocals and atmosphere being compressed into a moment before the track releases into something much more physical and dance-driven.

That contrast is an important part of why “Made of Light” works for me.

The emotional side makes the impact of the harder section stronger – and the harder section makes the melodic elements feel even bigger when they return.

Radio Edit and Extended: two slightly different sides

The two versions of “Made of Light” are not simply the same experience at different lengths.

The Radio Edit is the more immediate and dynamic interpretation. It reaches its energy quickly and puts greater emphasis on the powerful side of the production.

The Extended Version gives the trance elements more space.

Its progression feels closer to what longtime ALIMA listeners may expect, with more room for the musical journey to develop around the central melody.

That difference was important to me.

Rather than treating the Extended Version as a functional longer edit, it allows another side of the track to come forward.

One release therefore emphasizes impact.

The other emphasizes progression.

Both lead back to the same central idea.

Where AI entered the production

Artificial intelligence was part of the development of “Made of Light,” but it entered the process after the musical foundation already existed.

The initial lead came from Simon. I adjusted parts of its notation and then developed my own production around it inside Logic Pro.

That Logic project became the prepared demo from which the later experimentation continued.

I used ChatGPT to develop prompts and work on the final lyrics, while Suno was used to explore how the existing demo could develop further in terms of arrangement, mix direction and vocal integration.

Some of those experiments also introduced the harder stylistic elements that ultimately influenced the final identity of the track.

The important part of the process for me is selection.

An AI-generated result is not automatically a creative decision.

I still have to decide what fits the track, what does not, what should be changed and what belongs in the final production.

In this case, an unexpected harder direction appeared – and I consciously chose to follow it because it made the music better.

The final sound design, creative decisions and production remained part of my own workflow in Logic Pro, while the final mastering was completed using my own mastering chain.

For me, that is the role these tools can have in music production: not replacing the original idea, but sometimes showing you a direction you might not have considered before.

Working with Simon T.P. again

Simon and I have known each other for some time through the German trance and bedroom-producer scene, and “Made of Light” is not the first time our musical paths have crossed.

We had already released music together previously through D:SIDE Recordings.

For “Made of Light,” his contribution was very specific: the original lead melody that started everything.

The production that developed around it became my interpretation of that idea.

And I am genuinely grateful that Simon gave me the opportunity and permission to take his melody and see where I could push it.

Without that original idea, this track would not exist.

The visual world of “Made of Light”

The title itself captures much of the feeling behind the release.

Light has always worked naturally with the visual language surrounding ALIMA: energy, movement, colour and something emerging from darkness.

The cyan, blue, violet and pink colour palette used around “Made of Light” is therefore not an isolated visual concept created for this one release.

It belongs to a wider ALIMA visual ecosystem that existed before the 2026 rebrand and continues to connect the music, artwork and digital presentation today and connects directly to “Free with You“.

For “Made of Light,” that visual identity became especially fitting.

The artwork’s central light forms mirror the same contrast that exists inside the music – darkness against brightness, atmosphere against impact, softness against energy.

Sometimes the unexpected direction is the right one

“Made of Light” did not become the track I originally imagined when I first heard Simon’s melody.

And I think that is exactly why I like it.

The first version in my head was an uplifting trance record.

The finished version still carries that DNA, particularly in its Extended form, but it also contains a harder rhythmic energy that I never intended to introduce when the production began.

That unexpected combination gave the track its identity.

It also reminded me of something I increasingly value in production: not every good creative decision needs to be part of the original plan.

Sometimes an idea takes months to reveal what it actually wants to become.

Sometimes an experiment creates something you were not looking for.

And sometimes the most interesting thing you can do is recognize that moment and follow it.

For me, “Made of Light” is exactly that kind of record.

A Simon T.P. melody. An ALIMA production. An unexpected harder turn. And, in the end, something that still feels unmistakably like ALIMA.