Bas Willemsen

All:
• Lead, rhythm & acoustic guitars
• Keyboards & orchestration
• Bass

Unless otherwise noted.

Bas Willemsen is the driving force behind Alarion. Check out the Alarion biography for more about Bas.

Damian Wilson (Threshold, Headspace, Rick Wakeman, a.o.)

Lead & backing vocals on:
• Waves of Destruction - I - Rising Tide (narration)
• Waves of Destruction - II - Struggle for Survival
• Chains of the Collective
• Colourblind
• The Whistleblower - I - Devastation
• The Whistleblower - II - Vindication (including narration)

One of Bas’ favorite vocalists, Damian Wilson is of course internationally acclaimed as frontman of Threshold, as singer-songwriter, and for his work with many great artists. Bas first saw him live in 2002 with Star One, but was really impressed with Damian’s singing after seeing him in 2008 with Threshold. His voice had really grown and continued on that high level on subsequent Threshold releases. Damian has been voted 'Best Vocalist' several times at the Classic Rock Society UK annual awards.

Damian was the prime choice for vocals on several songs and delivered excellent vocal recordings, as well as some nice narration. The impressive recordings with Damian had a relaxing and enjoyable ending: cycling to the center of Utrecht for some good food and tasty Belgian beers. ;-)

Check out Damian's album video teaser for more about his performance.

Irene Jansen (Ayreon, The Theater Equation, Star One, a.o.)

Lead & backing vocals on:
• Turn of Fate
• Turn of Fate (acoustic)

Bas first saw Irene Jansen perform in 2002 with Star One, where she shared the stage with her sister Floor Jansen of After Forever and Nightwish fame. In the following years Irene recorded vocals for Gary Hughes’ The Once and Future King – parts I & II (2003) and Ayreon’s The Human Equation (2004), after which no new recordings were released. In 2015 she reprised her role as 'Passion' in the live performance of Ayreon's The Human Equation: The Theater Equation.

Bas was impressed with the sound and force of Irene’s voice and wondered why she never did more recordings. When Bas invited Irene to sing on 'Waves of Destruction' in 2014, she was reluctant at first, having been focusing on school and work for over 10 years. However, after hearing about the project and having heard the music, Irene was very excited to get on board! She recorded great vocals on Turn of Fate. The versatility and range of Irene's voice are brought forward beautifully by the different layers of Turn of Fate, especially since she recorded vocals on an electric and an acoustic version.

Check out Irene's album video teaser for more about her performance.

Paul Glandorf (Arjen Lucassen (live), Semistereo, A Day's Work, a.o.)

• Lead & backing vocals on A Life Less Ordinary
• Backing vocals on Waves of Destruction - II - Struggle for Survival
• Backing vocals on The Whistleblower - II - Vindication

Paul has a beautiful voice with great range. Bas first heard him sing as a part of Arjen Lucassen’s acoustic band in 2012. Paul subsequently hosted the ProgMayhem festival twice, which was organized by Alerion. Paul once remarked to Bas that A Life Less Ordinary was his favorite song by Alarion.

Loving Paul’s voice, Bas remembered and Paul became the prime choice to sing on it on the ‘Waves of Destruction’ album. Paul's vocal style blends beautifully with Damian Wilson's, while retaining its own unique sound. This enabled Paul to deliver some great backing vocals supporting Damian Wilson’s voice on two more tracks. His backing performance on The Whistleblower II was particularly stunning.

Check out Paul's album video teaser for more about his performance.

Tineke Roseboom (Blaze Bayley, Thomas Zwijsen, Hollywood Scoring, a.o.)

• Lead & backing vocals on Clash with Eternity
• Backing vocals on The Whistleblower - I - Devastation
• Backing vocals on The Whistleblower - II - Vindication
• Backing vocals, soprano & alto choir vocals on Colourblind
• Soprano & alto choir vocals on Chains of the Collective

Tineke Roseboom obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree at the ArtEZ conservatory in Arnhem in 2012, majoring in classical singing. She fills much of her time storming various stages to perform classical music. Additionally, she recorded backing vocals on former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley’s album "King of Metal" (2012) as well as on several albums of guitarist Thomas Zwijsen. As a session musician, Tineke records vocals for many (movie score) composers, including Hollywood Scoring.

Introduced to Bas through her fellow student Dianne van Giersbergen of Ex Libris / Xandria and loving her classical voice, Bas invited Tineke to sing on the album. Tineke recorded an enchanting performance on Clash with Eternity, as well as on the songs where she recorded backing vocals to support Damian Wilson. Moreover, Tineke sang both soprano and alto choir parts on two more songs. These include some incredibly high parts which really show the range and technical skill Tineke has.

A special mention must be made of Tineke's backing vocals at the first vocal section of The Whistleblower II, about the horrors of exploitation and torture of young women in Bosnia. The section includes various keyboard parts to give it an evil sound. By suggestion of Tineke, Bas wrote some eerie sounding soprano and alto vocal parts to add to the atmosphere in this section, backing Damian Wilson's lead vocals. Needless to say Tineke's recording was spot on.

Both Chains of the Collective and Colourblind include various choir parts, for which Tineke recorded the soprano and alto parts. Marinus van Grootheest recorded the bass choir parts.

Check out Tineke's album video teaser for more about her performance.

Ben Mathot (Epica, Ayreon, Revamp, a.o.)

Violin on:
• Colourblind
• Clash with Eternity
• Turn of Fate (acoustic)

Bas first saw Ben perform live with his band Dis in 2004 as singer and violin player and was impressed by the performing abilities of Ben and all other band members. Especially memorable was the medley the band played of Metallica's album "...And Justice For All", which basically included all guitar solos, many of which were played by Ben on violin.

Ben is well known for his regular studio recordings as violin player with many great progressive and symphonic rock and metal acts, often working with Joost van den Broek or Arjen Lucassen. Living near Bas in Utrecht, Ben was provided with a lift to the studio before recording the enchanting violin melodies to ‘Clash with Eternity’ and the acoustic ‘Turn of Fate’, as well as the (sometimes scorchingly fast!) violin parts on 'Colourblind'.

Check out Ben's album video teaser for more about his performance.

Erik Laan (Silhouette, Tumble Town)

• Piano on The Whistleblower - I - Devastation
• Moog on The Whistleblower - II - Vindication

Bas first met Erik after a show of his band Silhouette in 2012. Bas was impressed by Erik’s compositions for Silhouette and the influence his compositions and playing have in the band. In 2014 Silhouette released their fourth Beyond the Seventh Wave, on which Erik's style is again a major factor in the album's sound. That same year, Silhouette won the iO Pages prog award 2014.

Erik was the first musician invited to guest on ‘Waves of Destruction’. He recorded his parts in the Silhouette studio at his home. The moog parts were originally composed as piano parts.

Check out Erik's album video teaser for more about his performance.

Tom Gorissen (Hymir)

• Additional keys on Waves of Destruction – I – Rising Tide
• Additional keys on Estrangement
• Keyboard/choir solo on Chains of the Collective
• Rhythm piano parts on Turn of Fate

Bas believes Tom’s keyboards to be the key ingredient to the quality of the music of his band Hymir. Hymir plays symphonic black metal, hugely influenced by Tom’s compositions. Appreciative of each other’s music, Tom and Bas had been in contact for some time before Tom had a brief stint as a bandmember in 2013-2014. Besides being a keyboardist, Tom is also an accomplished bassist.

Tom and Bas worked together to improve the original keyboard parts of Waves of Destruction I. On Estrangement, Tom added some nice extra strings at the end of the song to add to the climax. The keyboard/choir solo part on Chains of the Collective (originally without real vocal choir recordings) was made by Tom as an intended guest appearance prior to his joining, and was ultimately recorded by him for the album. The choir recordings of Tineke and Marinus were added to this.

Nico Lammers

• All acoustic guitars on Waves of Destruction – II – Struggle for Survival
• Right acoustic guitars on Turn of Fate (acoustic)
• Additional rhythm guitar parts on A Life Less Ordinary

Nico was a bandmember from 2010 to 2014 playing rhythm guitar, before a brief stint on bass in 2013-2014 after Ronald’s departure, as Nico is a bass player as well. Bas and Nico stayed in touch after Nico’s departure and Nico has since designed the current Alarion website.

Ronald van Schaik

• Bass guitar parts on all songs, except Colourblind.

As a longtime member and close friend of Bas, Ronald formed the backbone of Alerion for many years and appeared with solid bass recordings on all releases. Just after the bass recordings for “Waves of Destruction”, Ronald moved to Tromsø, Norway to attend university.

Faced with an unexpected rough time schedule, Ronald was not able to properly record all his parts in time. Bas and Ronald decided to keep all Ronald’s properly recorded bass guitar parts, constituting about half the album, and supplement them with bass recordings by Bas, using the MusicMan Bongo bass formerly owned by Ronald.

Jeroen Nagel (Blind Justice)

• Drums and percussion

Jeroen was a bandmember from 2010 to 2013. Prior to this Jeroen played drums in many rock and metal bands from the mid 1990’s onwards. After the drum recordings for “Waves of Destruction”, Jeroen caught the attention of bassist and mainman Attila Szabó of Blind Justice, when Attilla auditioned for Alerion. Jeroen was subsequently invited to join Blind Justice, who Jeroen had been following for years.