Sony Achiba, a Ghanaian musician, who became very popular because of his brand of music which he calls Hip Dia, is once again out with his latest called the Indian Ocean.

It is an eight-track album on cassette but has 10 tracks on CD. The album, which has Indian Ocean as the title track, has other songs such as Mama Africa, Bra Bebo Me Nkomo, Odo Papa Bi, Mehu Wahaa, among others.

The songster who is currently in London for a further research into his musical career says he is also taking advantage of his presence in London to undergo a couple of operations to cure some complications, and leg injury, he sustained in a lorry accident some eight years ago.

He said he had so far undergone the first phase of the operation in Italy and was now awaiting the second one.

In a response to a questionnaire sent to him by this reporter at his London base, Sony Achiba said neither his research nor the medical treatment had held him back from pursuing his career as a musician.

He, however, expressed shock at the idea that his latest release was still not popular on the market.

He said he had noticed that for some strange reasons, his Ghanaian producers were not showing much interest in promoting his songs, and thus debunked the idea that there was no problem between him and his producers.

He said he had noticed some remarkable difference between producers in London, where he was currently domiciled and those in Ghana.

He added that while Ghanaian producers did not want to take the risk, their counterparts in London rather encouraged upcoming artistes or the already established ones to work hard.

He said he had been moved by the way producers in London went about their work and that when he returned to Ghana he would rationalise the conditions for beginners to be able to access the expertise of some of the London-based producers.

Sony Achiba, whose real name is Emmanuel J.B. Danquah, was born in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. He said when he decided to take up music as his profession, he really wanted something different from the hiplife music, which was then in vogue.

He said he researched for two years and came up with the Hip Dia, and that his latest album was not entirely Hip Dia, but had Soca and Salsa.

They are available for purchase at the Lucky Sounds at Kantamanto.