alionmind News May 2017 - The progress, so far

Yes, it is already June, and I wanted to post this alionmind News blog since a few days. The reason why this didn't happen is, that I hoped to get the alionmind website up and running and also a new AlionLive video uploaded. This issue of the alionmind news would have been far more impressive then. So, before we dive into the things that have been accomplished in May 2017, we get into the things that haven't:

Website(s)?
I had to learn about a lot of things in May, regarding to webdesign. The internet has changed somewhat since I dived into the depths of webdesign, web programming and all that for the last time. Thus my recent websites always looked not just a bit oldschool...in a bad way ;) And also, websites have to be flawlessly viewable on a lot of different devices today. Mobile is a must. Another thing is, that people are used to fancy multimedia elements on websites these days. And these are just the few things I can tell you about, without drifting into the tech details. So I had to learn about new web standards, features of new versions of software frameworks and last but not least, new tools. Aside from the ongoing learning process, I had to come up with a new concept for the website(s) and also re-write all of the text content, as the old content doesn't meet my current standard. A last, but not very unimportant fact is, that I do not just build one website currently, but actually five. The work, I am currently doing, is not just used to create the main alionmind records website. It will be re-used for the sites of alionsonny, Cimelium and Willma Poppen also. So, once the alionmind site is finished, which will happen in a few days, all the other websites will also be finished in about 2 or 3 days. Enough about that ;)

Another AlionLive video?
Yepp, and while having the illusion of getting the website(s) done, I also thought that I might be able to finish the last real part of the 'Spring in Madeira' series. Simply no time for it. The raw cut is done, but I have to write tons of subtitles, do hundreds of transitions. Nope, didn't happen. I'll work on that video, once the main workload of the website(s) is finished. May take a bit of time. After that last part, I'll record a short, but necessary aftermath and then the eternal series will finally end.

The 'Madeira' album by Cimelium is OUT!
If you follow me on Facebook or read the Cimelium blog, you'll already know it: The third album by Cimelium in total and the second alionmind album this year is out in the wild. You can buy it in all well-sorted online shops for music, for example GooglePlay (CLICK!) and iTunes(CLICK!). And if you are stingy and if you don't want me to get rich, you can also stream it on all well known streaming platforms, such as Spotify (CLICK!). So finally, after all the other backlog has shrunken a bit, I'll be able to work at another alionsonny album. So, friends of the weird kind of Reggae, be ready. By the way: did you know, that the alionmind records portfolio now has 14 album releases? Yepp, time for a 15th. :D

AlionLive is alive with a new video!
As I already mentioned, I wanted to get out another one, because it is about time. But I am glad to announce also here, that after over a year of silence, the 'Spring in Madeira' series has finally a new part. It was uploaded about 3 weeks ago, so I suppose, some people will already be grudgy again, because they think I broke my promise of continuing AlionLive again. Folks: Making videos is NOT my main job. If I would get paid properly for it, my output would be larger. But currently, making music is quite more rewarding. Once I get more subscribers and a significant increase of views, I could put more focus on AlionLive. Ok, but here's the new video. It is the next to the last real part of 'Spring in Madeira'and we go hiking again. The sountrack is completely from the 2009 alionsonny album 'Reggae?'. You like the music? You can get the album on GooglePlay, iTunes and everywhere else. Streaming is also possible on Spotify. And here's the video:

What's next?
Well you know already, and EXACTLY in that order:
1. Finishing the website(s)
2. Finishing the 2014 Madeira video series
3. Starting to work at the new alionsonny album 'Phoenix'
4. Starting to work at the 'Bike ride to the North Sea' video series
So, let's work!

alionmind News April 2017 - alionmind is conquering the world with music!

Strong statement, right? Hello first, and I apologize for the long time of silence. As you might have noticed, 2015 to 2017 was not a great time for the house of alionmind. Well, since everything is largely getting back to normal, I would like to at least post the monthly alionmind news in time. But since there is still a lot to be done on the way to "normality", I can not guarantee anything. Long preface. what's new?

Sales are going up steeply 
First of all, I would like to proudly announce, that the products from the house of alionmind now sell in 51 countries around the globe. A few days ago, I got the final sales statement for February 2017 from my distributor and it's the most revenue-generating month since alionmind records exists. I bet, that now you are interested in a few details. No, I'm not going to mention any amount of money. This is business secrecy ... for reasons. But I can tell you where the most was sold / streamed. Let's start with the number of sales in the various countries:

United States	17,6%
Japan	8,8%
France, Germany	7,4% (each)
Mexico	6,7%
Brazil, United Kingdom	4,6% (each)
Argentina	3,9%
Chile	3,2%
Hungary	2,4%
Canada, Philippines	2,1% (each)
Spain, Sweden	1,8% (each)
Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia	1,4% (each)
Austria, Australia, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey	1,0% (each)
Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland	0,7% (each)

The remaining 5.9% (rounding errors reserved) are distributed between Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Iceland, India, Latvia, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Singapore, Ukraine and Uruguay. I think I must probably start promoting more in these countries ;). But you see: Almost the whole world now listens to alionmind music.

How about the distribution of sales across the 3 music projects? Here we go:

alionsonny 18,3%
Cimelium 15.0%
Willma Poppen 66.7%

 As you can see, Willma Poppen has left the previous bestseller Cimelium far behind. I am astonished about this. I had not expected the success of the latest Willma Poppen album. What makes me particularly astonished is that a large part of the sales of Willma Poppen (about 70%) are achieved by a single title on the album "Willma im Wunderland". It is the title "RaumZeit", which many people around the planet seem to like.

Two new albums released since the last post 
 Since the last post on this blog was created in September 2015, two released albums were not mentioned here. Which? As I already told above, the second album by Willma Poppen "Willma im Wunderland" is available and is currently by far the absolute bestseller in the alionmind portfolio. The album is, as always, available on all known sites for music sales, e.g. on iTunes (CLICK!) And GooglePlay (CLICK!). Streaming on Spotify (CLICK!) is of course also possible. If you prefer to buy your music somewhere else, just search for "Willma im Wunderland" at the service of your choice.

Also, since February 2017, the second album of Cimelium "Ad Hominem" is available. Attention: This is a pretty dark album, as the Cimelium fans, as far as I've noticed, like it. You also get this album on all music sites on the web, e.g. on iTunes (CLICK!) and GooglePlay (CLICK!). Also the Spotify (CLICK!) link is not missing here.

Cimelium's album "Madeira" 
Yes, what about that one? I had to stop working on this album at the end of 2015, because of many unpleasant events, shortly before completion and I started working again at it in March. However, both my quality requirements and my way of working have now drastically changed, so I can not just complete the whole thing quickly. Nevertheless, I am confident that the release is only a matter of days. However, as I will mention in the next sections, I have also to bring a few other things back to life. So it can also be a metter of weeks. Let's see...

AlionLive? 
Yes, the AlionLive channel is, as my other video channels, now abandoned for over a year. This is to change very soon. Then you finally get the last episode of "AlionLive - Spring in Madeira". After that, I have a nice long series about a bike trip to the North Sea for you, a series about a trip to Madeira in 2015 and also a small series on a trip to Cyprus, from which I returned yesterday. There is much to catch up.

Websites?
Yes, the websites of alionmind records and the 3 music projects are still offline. I have a lot of somewhat time-intensive stuff on my to-do list before I can relaunch those websites.

So, this was a very nice block text. This was absolutely necessary after such a long time of silence. As mentioned above, I will do my best to provide you monthly with the latest news from now on. On Facebook, you could get the latest news all the time. But there are still many, who do not like Facebook and Co. And these folks should also be provided with the latest events around alionmind. For this time, I say goodbye until next time.

alionmind News February 10. 2015 - Rising from the ruins ;)

Hello, and welcome to the first alionmind news since a long time and also the first in 2015. Why has this blog suddenly been awakened from it's deep sleep? The reason will please the friends of music and the friends of the videos will maybe get a little grumpy: Due to recent events, I have decided to restrict work on videos and finally put more work into creating new music. This is now possible and necessary.

The Situation
I had a musical creative crisis, which meant that I could not work on music since last fall. To compensate for this, I then decided to work more on videos section and even started 3 new Youtube channels. For whatever reason - but we are happy about it - it seems that the music crisis somehow "dissolves". Just like that ... And now it would be stupid if I would continue to invest a large part of my time in creating various kinds of videos. The listeners of Cimelium and Willma Poppen music are not just slowly getting a bit grumpy, because they are waiting for ages for the promised albums. And I also do not ommit the fact, that the sales of songs and albums still bring more profit than the advertising revenue on Youtube. So we start again with the music, and that with full force, so you finally get new music.

AlionLive - Spring in Madeira?
Friends of the videos, don't be sad. I'll still work on videos from time to time. The "AlionLive - Spring in Madeira" series is completed just to slightly more than 50%, the next Madeira trip is already booked and the series will be finished in any case until the start of the trip. No, I will not tell you the date for security reasons, but let's say I have about 3 months left.

Tutorials?
Since this takes a huge amount of time to prepare and create, I'll will restrict this most of all video formats. Currently the channel is indeed amazingly well visited, but not as much that I could say that it would have the highest priority. But it will definitely go on.

Music videos?
Since one can always work a bit on those and most of them can be done fairly quickly, there'll be something going on from time to time. Let me surprise you.

Let's Play videos?
I guess I'll still do a lot of those. If I work hard on music again, of course I need one or the other hour of leisure that I can spend on a little game. One can then also record the gameplay and we get a lot of nice little Let's Play videos. So this will go on!

Ok, that was it actually for this news. As usual, and as in the previous news, I want to briefly wrap up again the little that has been done at the house of alionmind since the last blog entry. There is only one, somewhat strange, new piece in music, but a lot of new videos.

Willma Poppen - Ding Dong Merrily On High
Quite unnoticed, because not announced on the official Willma Poppen blog, I created a little christmas song, just for fun. It's a pop-techno version of the old Christmas song that I've already dished out sometime ago for the alionsonny project in a Reggae style. I think it is, despite the creative crisis, quite well done ;) The song is available for free download on Soundcloud, so: Grab it!

AlionLive - Spring in Madeira
I worked on the video material of a total of two days and created four videos out of it. Sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it is necessary to divide a day in two videos. For both, day 7 and 8 this was the case. Otherwise, the videos would have simply became too long, and one or the other has already complained that those four videos are still too long, despite of the cutting. Overall these four new videos are a whooping 2 hours, 35 minutes and 22 seconds long!

Day 7 - Part 1 - The Fortress
At the beginning of the 7th day, we visited the fortress "Fortaleza de São João do Pico". More info on the official AlionLive blog!

Day 7 - Part 2 - ART!
Then we went into the old town to extensively visit the artists' quarter. More info on the official AlionLive blog!

Day 8 - Part 1 - Ponta de São Lourenço 2014
This video shows a wonderful hike in best weather at a place we visited in absolutely bad weather already in 2012. More info on the official AlionLive blog!

Day 8 - Part 2 - Bus ride Ponta de São Lourenço - Funchal
A veeery long video for the, surprisingly enough, not just a few friends of bus ride videos. More info on the official AlionLive blog!

Tutorials on "Multiversity of Alion"
Here we have just the series on audio visualization in Blender still, but it already grew by as much as 4 videos. By now everything is already quite complex. So, if you are able to endure my lousy English, are not completely inexperienced in Blender and want to learn a bit, have fun:

Let's Plays on AlionLiveLP
Now, that finally the problem with Youtube blocking my videos in Germany is solved (do not ask how), I have recorded a bit for you again. There's currently no AlionLiveLP blog, but all the info can be found in the video descriptions. A total of 18 (!!!) new videos have been uploaded. If I embed them all here in the usual size, this blog will be totally "unloadable". Therefore I just embed mini previews here. Simply switch to full screen, or just visit the channel ;)

The Forest - English Edition
If you want to experience my lousy English again, there's a little "The Forest" series, in which I steal a native's house and defend it against the owners, sometimes using evil tricks. Here are the videos in order:

       


       

The Forest - German Edition
Yes, if you are able to understand German, there's also a series. Unfortunately, after an update of horror, the game started to stutter like hell. After a time, this was really no fun anymore. However, some funny and some amazing moments happened during this series. See for yourself:

       


      

The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind (German)
Yes, my very first Let's Play series was also continued. A total of 7 (!!!) videos have been added, of which the first 4 show the rather arduous life of a weak cat in the dangerous Vaardenfell. BUT: The last 3 parts are very "special". Actually I wanted to play while being a little drunk on New Year's Eve, but the glorious idea was then to also record and upload it. Oh well...

       


       

alionmind records music videos
On the music video channel unfortunately only three new videos have been uploaded. More is in the works. Patience: Sometime the complete alionmind catalog will be available. I promise! Here are the latest 3 additions:

alionsonny - Exploring Alion Forest
For this song from the 2010 album "Alion - The Original Soundtrack" I have decided to create a video from pictures that Malina and I have taken some time ago in a forest near Hamburg.

alionsonny - Individuality
The video for this alionsonny classic from the album "Dub Antiquities"  was once more created using  the ZGame Editor visualization software.

alionsonny - The Cursed Cemetery
For this song, which is also from the album "Alion - The Original Soundtrack", I decided to go the easy route and simply cut together some pictures of the official cover art. Not every song needs a complex video ;

And this is the end!
Yes, it was more news than I actually expected ;). There could have been just a bit more music. We will change this now. Let's get to work!

alionmind News September 14, 2014 - AND WHAT NEWS !!!

I think I have to organize the alionmind news differently this time. There is in fact so much to report that it is otherwise difficult not to keep track of everything. Let's start with the topic that was quite underrepresented during the recent editions of the alionmind news: MUSIC. Only the alionsonny project got no new sound material this time, but:

Cimelium
Here a piece of music for both, the more friendly album "Madeira" and a dark one for the psycho album "Ad Hominem" was produced. Nevertheless, we still lack two pieces of music for "Madeira" and for "Ad Hominem" we have almost 50% of the tracks finished. So the release of a new Cimelium album will probably take some time, but one will still be released this year.

Cimelium - Queimadas
Fitting for the recently uploaded part of the "AlionLive - Spring on Madeira" series, the latest title for "Madeira" album describes the picturesque location Queimadas. As quite often recently it is in a "semiorchestral" style, even though at about 50% of the playing time a fairly unexpected pop rhythm section drops in. It is again a nice positive track for the lovers of the more beautiful music ;). Listen for yourself and read more details on the official Cimelium blog.



Cimelium - Nihil Verum
Nothing is true ... if this does not awfully sound like "Ad Hominem" ;). Well, the new addition to the dark album in my opinion is not sounding very dark. Rather once again spiced with unusual and funny filter experiments. Someone already said, the piece would be too happy. Well, people always have to exaggerate :). Listen for yourself and read the details on the Cimelium blog.



Willma Poppen
The Friends of danceable madness and Funfair Techno (TM) jubilate and rejoice, because finally it's done: All 13 tracks needed for the album are complete in their first version (pre-release version). Now we just need to polish it all. Yeah, keep talking... Joking aside: There is still a good piece of work ahead, but a release date is now inside a foreseeable time range.

Willma Poppen - Liebe
Strange title? Yepp! And a beautifully fitting song for "Willma im Wunderland"! Because I didn't count correctly, I actually thought that this would be the last song for the album and thought, "What a great finishing track!". Well, but then there was still one missing. Learn more about this a little further down. And you can read more about the song "Liebe" on the Willma Blog.



Willma Poppen - Abendspaziergang
...and no: This is not a "Strandspaziergang reloaded", even if some folks say this and actually a certain amount of inspiration flew from one song to the other. No, it is an absolutely new song and a great capstone for the album. Read more on the Willma Blog.



AlionLive - Spring in Madeira 06 - Santana, Queimadas, Faial
Where there is fullness on one side there must be a lack on the other side. The music lovers really had to experience this during the last months. This time it is the other way and there is only a single AlionLive video. But what a video it is: This time we went hiking again in the north of the island. And before I now describe the whole thing again, read the AlionLive blog for more information.

Audio Visualization in Blender - Creating a Frequency Analyzer - Tutorial
Although all videos are blocked in Germany on my two new channels by default because of nonsensical GEMA claims by Youtube, I do not give up. This time I show you how to build a working frequency analyzer in Blender.

Three new Let's Play videos on Morrowind
Yes, and both the first part and these 3 were blocked by Youtube promptly because of nonsensical GEMA claims. This is especially great because videos in German language that are not available in Germany make incredibly much sense ;). I still do not give up and keep going. I hope more and more people use ProxTube, Proxmate & Co. to show Google that this is not ok. Here are the latest Morrowind videos.

The Forest Gameplay - Welcome to Novo Funchal!
Also blocked in Germany, but in  English language and therefore less tragic ;). Actually that was just a test shot of the Early Access Games "The Forest". But then everything went wonderfully out of hand and I did not have the heart to deny you that ;). WARNING: VIOLENCE, BLOOD AND STRONG LANGUAGE!

alionmind records music videos
As many as four new of them we have again. And thus the alionmind music video channel grows at least in terms of available videos. Regarding to viewers it is unfortunately still a bit meager, but the channel is not even six months old and currently I upload exclusively antique material. So there is still room to grow ;).

alionsonny - 80s 4 Ever (Electronic Space Rock)
This was real madness. In the context of training for my tutorial channel I had modelled a classic VU meter in Blender and then also uploaded a little video of it on Facebook. This video got such a great reception that I was so crazy to render a 5 minutes video of an animation of it. Result: 120 hours of rendering time. My pretty quiet laptop rendered a whole week during the night hours. Sorry: NEVER AGAIN! ;) However, the result fits very well with the, incidentally very popular, track "80s 4 Ever" from the album "Electronic Space Rock".

alionsonny - Exploring Alion Forest (Alion - The Original Soundtrack)
Somewhere I had a few photos, taken during a little walk in the woods in northern Hamburg, on the hard disk. I decided to create some kind of a music video in the style of the video for "Autumn" out of them. And actually it fits very well for the song "Exploring Alion Forest" from the album "Alion - The Original Soundtrack".

alionsonny - Individuality (Dub Antiquities)
This is the only one of the four videos that you actually can really call a music video. Once again I used the visualization plugin ZGame editor, integrated in FL Studio, and the result is in my opinion very good. And since this visualization software works quite well with the old dubby alionsonny sound, "Individuality" is another track from the album "Dub Antiquities" which has a fitting music video now.

alionsonny - The Cursed Cemetery (Alion - The Original Soundtrack)
The video for the classic "The Cursed Cemetery" from the album "Alion - The Original Soundtrack" is the simplest: I just put together the images from the cover art set of the album and some private graphic experiments in a slideshow and the result is quite nice :).

Ok, and this is the work of the past month, plus 5 days. I think: Not bad! But let us see if we can beat it all the next month ;).

alionmind records News 08.06.2014

Exactly a month ago, the last alionmind news were published. And I can well be proud of all that happened during this one month. In short: 3 new songs were presented in form of pre-release versions and in addition also 2 new AlionLive videos with a total running time of over an hour were finished and uploaded. This is still not a record, because there were quite more fruitful months in the past. It would have happened a lot more, if not again technical and personal difficulties had disrupted the workflow. Especially I want to mention here, that after less than a year of use my studio headphones lost a stereo channel and had to be sent in for repair. If you remember the review in the Audio Arsenal blog, I want you to know that I now strongly relativize this review. Anyway: Without studio headphones I am hardly able to do anything related to making music currently. Anyway, soon it goes on. Let's now go through the events of the past month in detail. Let's start with the music:

"Poiso" for Cimeliums album "Madeira"
This is now the 10th title for the more "happy" of the two Cimelium albums in progress. Just 3 more and I can start creating the release versions! The present work is probably again a little surprise for those who follow the progress on the "Madeira" album. It will be a very colorful album with many different styles and experiments. This time I decided to go for an orchestral approach without the use of rhythm instruments. Read more about the piece in the official Cimelium blog.

"Nachtwanderer" by Willma Poppen
There is only one project, where is more progress going on than at the next Cimelium album. And this project is the new Willma Poppen album! Well... with 11 completed pre-release versions, the upcoming album "Willma im Wunderland" is just one track in advance. But if I tell you that the completion of the remaining two tracks is only a matter of minutes, you will understand that we are really very close to a a new album release. Stupid headphones! ;) The latest song by Willma Poppen: Once again, it is a piece which does not really fit into any genre. Just as you know it from me already. I experimented a lot. Just for example: The typical offbeat Techno Bass has been replaced by a damped acoustic rhythm guitar. Also I placed a lot of rhythm changes, "sonic surprises" etc. in this track again. So this piece is anything but boring. A listener described it quite appropriate, I think: "A journey through the past four decades of electronic music, a part of everything thrown in a blender, mixed well and you have a cocktail that makes everyone dance". Thank you, Bernd! This actually very well describes the entire album "Willma im Wunderland" and I'll probably just steal this for the albums description ;). More about "Nachtwanderer" in the official Willma Poppen blog

alionsonny's "Farm Dub"
Last, but not least, there's also something new from alionsonny project. Yes, the condemned live longer! The first track since the release of the "Continuity" album is stylistically a trip back to the roots of alionsonny project. Not quite back to 2004. For this it lacks the very exaggerated bass and muddy mix ;). But otherwise everything is back and you feel transported back to the year...  let's say in 2006? Wild Dub experiments and absolute disregard for the reggae purists who actually want that Reggae remains as it was between 1960-1980. Who thought I would finally step off the path of provocation, gets a well deserved slap with this track. More on "Farm Dub" can be read in the official alionsonny blog.

Sorry, fans of the dark side of Cimelium!
Before we get to the videos, I now have to apologize to those Cimelium listeners who do not like the path the Cimelium project went on with the "Madeira" album. I call them jokingly the "Cimelium Goths" ;). You wait longingly that more happens on the dark sister album "Ad Hominem" and I'm sorry that you are this time the only ones getting nothing new to hear. But also for you I was not idle, but then came the problems with the headphones... Also you can look forward to one of the next songs for the "Madeira" album, which will sound quite more "dark". And I promise you: As soon as the headphones are back, your demands have highest priority for me.

AlionLive Frühling auf Madeira - Part 1
Let's get to the videos! Here of course the new Madeira series has currently priority. There's quite very slow progress going on, since I currently generally, let's say, have to struggle with a problem of motivation in the video field. On May 20th the introductory part of this brand new video series about my trip in April 2014 has been uploaded. As usual with the introductory parts of large video series, this includes a long "opening speech" (about 10 minutes) from me. But quite a bit of springtime Funchal is shown during the remaining 15 minutes. In the next part we really start. Read more about this video in the official AlionLive blog.

AlionLive Bikeride Lüneburg Heath 2013 - Day 2
Did I write a bit earlier about the condemned living longer? This is even more true for this video series! So many who stumbled across the first part while searching on Youtube, wondered when this series would be finally continued. Also the regular viewers asked this question one time or another. The latter rather less because they knew about the last Madeira series and that I absolutely wanted to finish it and therefore it had priority. Now, that I got some air, I decided to deliver the missing 3 parts as soon as possible. Indeed, it is quite a nice little series and before the next bike ride begins (it is season again ;)) I would like to have finished at least a big portion of this series. In this part we explore the impressive Lüneburg Old Town and then ride on to the heath, where we visit a Stone Age heath cemetery. More on this video? You know -> AlionLive blog!

So, that's it for this month! Let's see what the next one brings. However, I must point out that I recently started to develop software again (programming). Yes, I have re-discovered my love for this kind of work again and have therefore perhaps less time for making music and editing video. Let's see, how do I get this managed. For now I say goodbye. Keep an eye on the blogs and Youtube! If something new happens, you read it first there. And do not forget Facebook and Twitter. Since everything is even more up to date there. I also have a few places left on my Facebook friend list. So if you want to always be completely up to date, just send me a request!

alionmind News April 02. 2014

Once more quite late, but here are the, to some extent, monthly alionmind news. While I had to complain about a lack of news when publishing the recent editions of the alionmind news, this is really not the case in this issue. 5 new AlionLive videos with a total of almost 2 hours of exciting action, two new pieces of music and the availability of the alionsonny album "Continuity" on the, as I think, most important sales and streaming platforms, give me a reason  to look back on the past almost 1 1/2 months with satisfaction. The news in detail:

"Continuity" is available on iTunes and Spotify
For some time now you can easily buy or stream the latest alionsonny album on iTunes and Spotify. Both, Amazon and emusic are still asleep. But if they don't want to make money, then that's fine. Especially since both platforms, as I can't say often enough, rather rip off the artists, both through their pricing, as well as in respect of the shares the artists receive from the sales. A detailed blog post about the availability of the album can be found on the alionsonny blog.

Willma Poppen - Blauer Montag
The newest track for the soon to be released album "Willma im Wunderland" has not only an unusual title, but also a, for "Willma Poppen", unusual creative approach and sound. The meaning of the title is likely to open up to anyone who has at least once heard the piece completely and has lived in the 80s. Thus 10 of the traditionally 13 songs for the album are now finished in the form of pre-release versions. Read more about the song on the "Willma Poppen" blog.

Cimelium - Santo da Serra
Also for Cimeliums album "Madeira", you can now listen to a new pre-release version, which is about the picturesque mountain village of Santo da Serra this time. However, this version is with a 100% certainty very far from the final album version. Therefore there's a need for a particularly large number of feedbacks, suggestions, etc. Read more on this song on the Cimelium blog.

5 new AlionLive videos
For AlionLive, since the last aliomind news, there has been such a large output that it may be considered erroneously, that creating video would be from now on the new main field of my person. This is by no means the case. Various factors, which I will not describe in detail here, contributed to this amount of new video. This had however, and that should not be left unmentioned, a rather positive effect on the viewer and subscriber numbers of AlionLive channel. For the first time, the number of monthly views exceeded 1000 Views. However, this was probably also caused by the separation of the AlionLive project from the alionsonny project, particularly the Facebook page. Anyway: Here are the videos in detail:

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 12 - Hike from Faial to Portela
More information about this video on the AlionLive blog!

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 13 - Hiking with Beatrice
More information about this video on the AlionLive blog!

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 14 - Weather Apokalypso
More information about this video on the AlionLive blog!

General Rundkopf
About this, I would like to write a few words ;). As you can see from the viewer count of both videos, this two-part nonsense- and information series is probably not responsible for the "viewers boom" on AlionLive. I also got quite a lot of negative feedback concerning this format. And in fact there are plenty nonsense Youtubers out there with an increasing tendency for making fools out of themselves. Nevertheless, this will have been certainly NOT the last trip to the pure nonsense domain. Here are the two short videos, the first of which explains why I wear military clothing recently and the second with a short fashion show on them. Read more information on the "General Rundkopf" videos on the AlionLive blog.

Ok, and that's it for this time! But I can promise you, that I will have a big surprise for you the next time :).

alionmind News February 19. 2014

Blender 3D particle animation from an AlionLive intro.

On the very day a month ago, you got the last alionmind news. This time again I have rather little new to report, and that bit mainly has to do with the alionsonny project. But one of the news is really big news, and you guessed probably already know what it is. The fans of the projects "Willma Poppen" and "Cimelium" will again be disappointed, but they will get something new as the very next task. I promise!

"Continuity" is out now!
Yes, it's done. The album is currently only available on Routenote, but will soon also be available on all major music sites and streaming portals. And now before I write everything again, I rather refer to the detailed post on the alionsonny blog. There everything is explained in detail (CLICK!).

alionsonny.de is up to date again
What? You didn't notice that the homepage of the alionsonny project was not updated for quite a time? Great... or not, because that means that you probably didn't visit the site for quite a long time ;). More details about this can be read also on alionsonny blog (CLICK!).

AlionLive is now a separate project
Some alionsonny fans, who are in no way interested in my videos, have complained regularly that the messages about new videos etc. were over-present on the alionsonny blog. Others were less interested in the music (*gulp*), but only in the videos. Therefore, there is now also a separate AlionLive blog and a Facebook fan page that you can "LIKE" if you want to. I am very happy about each and every "LIKE" this page gets. The separation of the AlionLive project not only enhances the little alionmind "internet empire", but also opens up some new, and  for the fans very useful, possibilities. On these I am currently working. I only mention here the downloadable hiking routes and waypoints in KML format. This collection will be constantly growing. In addition, there will soon be a database of all music played in the videos. So who wants to find out in which videos at which time a particular song of an alionmind music projects is played can do this soon in a very convenient way. Useless? Well, that may be your opinion ;) .

So, that's it again. Yes, very little news, but I can promise with some certainty that there will be very extensive news in about a month. Here at the alionmind labs incredibly much is happening currently .

alionmind News January 19. 2014

Again this time, due to the ongoing work on the alionsonny album "Continuity", there's not too much to report. For the projects Willma Poppen and Cimelium unfortunately there is nothing new currently. But there are two new AlionLive videos.

Album "Continuity"
At the time of the last alionmind news, the alionsonny blog reported, that just for 3 of the 13 titles a release version had been completed . Meanwhile another 6 songs were completed. So there are still 4 songs in pre-release state, and these are from the period between August 2013 to now. This means,  that there is probably not much to do. But we know the drill: Sometimes things turn out differently than you think ;). But already during the work on the, now finished, release version of "Flight Of The Butterfly" it showed that everything is almost fine with the recent works. But we 'll see. It is well possible that the album release takes place before the next alionmind news.

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 11
As with some previous episodes, it was also a good idea for day 11, to split the video material because it simply fits thematically. There is indeed the well-known problem that only a very limited part of the audience appreciates my special shaky cam technique. And since on day 11 I was once again in the mood to film the way back to the hotel after staying in Camara de Lobos, it was logical to upload the part before the walk separately.

Part 1 - Camara de Lobos
In this part, the picturesque fishing village "Camara de Lobos" is featured. There is only one short part of "me talking into the camera", everything is just nice views of a sunny sunday in Camara de Lobos. The soundtrack consists of songs from the "Continuity" album. Here you can hear some preliminary release versions for the first time.

Part 2 - From Camara de Lobos to the Lido
This video is only recommended for diehard fans of the shaky cam technique. Well, I have done my best, with little success to keep the camera still while walking. Nevertheless, there are also nice moments and views of the promenade in this video. Oh, and the claustrophobic folks better skip the part with the long dark tunnel ;). The soundtrack consists almost entirely of release versions for the album "Continuity".

Yes, and that's it already again. Finally, I want to ask the fans of the projects Willma Poppen and Cimelium to be patient. The time without new music for you is soon over and I promise that, right  after the release of the alionsonny album, I will work on new titles for the other projects. There is already some work in progress and I can promise you that you will be surprised positively, when you get to hear on what I was working in the background ;). And we need just 4 more songs for the Willma Poppen album.

alionmind News, 12. November 2013

Hello and welcome to the, once again, a little late alionmind records news blog. The delay has something to do with the fact that the creative output of alionmind, due to internal turmoil in the house, was rather limited in October. For this reason, I would have had little to report. I have now programmed a little software which I can use to analyze the data provided by the distributor Routenote on sales, downloads and streams. And for this reason I can add a few facts about the current best-selling alionmind releases to the few creative news in this news blog. But let's start with the musical releases since the last news blog:

Cimelium - Ad Hominem - De Omnibus Dubitandum

On October 17. the fourth track for the Cimelium album in production "Ad Hominem" was completed. "De Omnibus Dubitandum" as the song is titled, is once more something for lovers of quiet and rather gloomy Cimelium sounds like you know them from the album "Mesopotamia". Read more about it on the Cimelium Blog ->.

Cimelium - Madeira - Santana

Also for lovers of more "happy" Cimelium sounds there is something new available: The 7. track for the album "Madeira" was featured on November 2. This time it takes you to the rough  and tough north coast of Madeira, to Santana.  Read more about it on the Cimelium Blog ->.



Now for the new videos:

AlionLive - Bike ride to the Lüneburg Heath - Day 1 - From Glinde to Lüneburg

I just couldn't stay away from the editing of the video footage which I recorded during my bike ride through the Lüneburg Heath in August. And suddenly I had the first part ready, which is about the first day, when I rode from Glinde to Lüneburg. Read more about it on the alionsonny Blog ->.

AlionLive - Return 2 Madeira - Tag 10 - Teil 2 - Levadawanderung von Camacha nach Vale Paraiso

This three quarter hour monumental work is only for absolute hardcore AlionLive viewers. For 47 minutes, I have pointed the camera during the walk to the front of me and commented on it more or less in detail. Shaky camera, adorably lousy English, grotesque slips and my very own view of things make it all a... well... haunting experience ;). Read more about it on the alionsonny Blog ->.

  The raw and cold statistics

Ok, and that's it, regarding to the creative news. Now we get to the promised insight into the alionmind sales statistics. You do not really think that I publish real sales data (in € or $) here? No, everything is purely based on percentage. I myself was a little surprised when my analysis software gave me the first results. Namely, I had a completely different estimation regarding to the  popularity of certain albums.

The Top 5 Albums

For example: I would have never thought, that Cimeliums "Mesopotamia" is by far the bestseller among the albums sales and Willma Poppen's "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" didn't even make the top 5. TIP: Click the list entries to get to the page of the album on the website of the project!

Rank	Album
1	Cimelium - Mesopotamia
2	alionsonny - Dub Antiquities
3	alionsonny - Reggae?
4	alionsonny - Electronic Spacerock
5	alionsonny - Alion - The Original Soundtrack

The top selling 10 single tracks

The number of single sold MP3 downloads has also somewhat surpised me. There were relatively few and the distribution is quite uniform. You see,  Cimeliums "Mesopotamia" is well represented here too, but, to my great surprise, terrific surpassed by "Reggae" by the alionsonny project. TIP: Click on an album title in the list takes you to the album on iTunes. Clicking on a song title in the list, takes you to the song on iTunes. So, if you are currently in the mood for buying something... ;).

Platz	Titel	Album
1	Life goes ON!	alionsonny - Reggae?
2	Summertime 2008	alionsonny - Reggae?
3	Enki	Cimelium - Mesopotamia
4	Dagon	Cimelium - Mesopotamia
5	Traveling Lion	alionsonny - Reggae?
6	The Knights Of Dubwood Castle - Chapter Two	alionsonny - Reggae?
7	Hamburg	alionsonny - Reggae?
8	Springtime 2009	alionsonny - Reggae?
9	Days Of Our Years	alionsonny - Electronic Spacerock
10	Springtime 2007	alionsonny - Reggae?

The top 10 streams

For the song streams via Spotify, Deezer & Co. everything turns out to be completely different. Here Willma Poppen is clearly in the lead. TIP: Clicking on an album title in the list takes you to the album on Spotify. Clicking on a Songtitle takes you to the song in Spotify. Just have a listen ... ;)

Platz	Titel	Album
1	Willma Poppen	Willma Poppen - Heroes of the Popp-Culture
2	80s 4 Ever	alionsonny - Electronic Spacerock
3	Popp-Eye	Willma Poppen - Heroes of the Popp-Culture
4	Alion In A Jungle	alionsonny - XperiMental Reggae WorX
5	Battle Theme	alionsonny - Alion - The Original Soundtrack
6	Traveling The Silkroad	alionsonny - XperiMental Reggae WorX
7	Aurora Borealis	alionsonny - Electronic Spacerock
8	Never Born To Follow	alionsonny - Electronic Spacerock
9	Popp-U-Lism	Willma Poppen - Heroes of the Popp-Culture
10	Fear No Evil	alionsonny - Electronic Spacerock

Well, and that should be it for this time. Oh, and as expected, I make the most sales on iTunes with albums sales. The worst, of course, is the streaming ... though not as bad as I thought actually. Until next time, bye!

alionmind news - October 6. 2013

A bit later than scheduled, but here's your monthly news from the alionmind towers. A lot of stuff has been released for you during the past month. I hardly can believe it myself, that this all took place in just one month. Let's look at it piece by piece.

New old free alionsonny album "The Alion Archives"
The biggest event, especially for the old time alionsonny fans, was the release of a new free album, containing 13 tracks of which some are called "legendary" by some people. The album is free as in beer. It is titled "The Alion Archives" and can be downloaded right from the alionsonny homepage. Just CLICK HERE to get your free copy. The album contains mostly reggae-ish songs from around 2006, including colaboration tracks with Colin Mutchler, Ital Roots Players and Scott Durfinger.

2 new songs by the alionsonny project
But there's also brand new music from the alionsonny project. 2 new songs have been completed for the upcoming album "Continuity". And both tracks are a definition of the continuity of the alionsonny project as a music project without genre boundaries. On September the 4. "Pirates of Madeira" was released. It is a lively reggae-ish crossover track, which could aswell ended up as a track for the Willma Poppen project as some may say. It is dedicated to the brave crew of the Nau Santa Maria de Colombo in Madeira. Read more about the song on the alionsonny Blog.

The second track released by the alionsonny project in September is even more one of the strange genre mashups, the alionsonny project is known for. It is, like in the old days, a mix between Irish Folk and Reggae. Unlike the previous Irish Folk Reggae blends done by alionsonny, this track melts the genres together instead of just forcing them to coexist. It all started with the idea to version the classic "Sleng Teng" Reggae riddim and evolved into a Sleng Teng Reggae version of the well known Irish Folk song "Whiskey in the Jar" with the well known tune "Lord of the Dance" as a secondary melody. The track is titled "Ganja in the Jar". Guess why ;). Read more about the story behind the song on the alionsonny Blog.

2 new songs by the Willma Poppen project
Yes, also 2 new songs for the soon to be released Willma Poppen album "Willma im Wunderland" have been finished. First, on September 17th, a new very danceable track, titled "Himmelswiese" was presented to the public. One one hand it is another happy Willma Poppen track. On the other hand you will, as allways spot some unique moments. Read more about the track on the Willma Poppen Blog.

The second new Willma Poppen track is the first collaboration track of the project ever. It is also the first track with vocals, namely spoken word by Donnie Ozone. It also features a quite unusually serious sound for the Willma Poppen project. Read more about the track and the quite interesting story behind it on the Willma Poppen Blog.

2 brand new AlionLive videos
First, the little video series about my bike trip from hamburg to Mölln and Ratzeburg has been completed. Read more about it on the alionsonny Blog. You can also now view the whole video series in one playlist with a total run time of 2 hours and 14 minutes. Nice entertaining for a cozy video evening ;)

I also started working at the remaining video material of my 2012 trip to Madeira "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira". I had a bit of a problem with the video material of day 10 I had to resolve before working further at it. Read more about that trouble on the alionsonny Blog.

Sorry Cimelium fans
I have to beg the Cimelium fans for patience. No new track for the "sibling" albums "Madeira" and "Ad Hominem" has been finished during the past month. Currently I want to get the alionsonny album "Continuity" out at all cost. So stay tuned. I promise: In October you will get at least one new Cimelium track. And i keep my promises. And, hey Cimelium fans: None of the other projects has 2 albums about to be released. So in fact you are the ones who get the most when it is album release date. So keep patient. All comes when it comes ;)

So that's the news from the alionmind multimedia factory. Let's see how things go in October! We cary on, we are alion :D.

alionmind news - September 1. 2013

Yes, a month has passed allready again since the last alionmind news. Because of the summer activities, no new music has been released. Nope, not a single song by any project. But no fear: I worked at a lot of great song concepts for all projects. So, now that the end of summer is near, it is more than just likely, that a lot of new song releases will take place soon.

And I have not been idle on the video production works also: A total of 3 (!!!) new AlionLive videos have been published since the last alionmind news: 1 for the "Return 2 Madeira" series and 2 for the "Bikeride Hamburg-Mölln-Ratzeburg" series. Here they are:

...and as if this wasn't enough... I added another big project to my stack: I did a bike ride (as announced on Facebook,Twitter etc.) to the Lüneburger Heide and brought back about 3 hours of usable video material. So, here we go: A new AlionLive video series. The first editing pass of the first part of the series is allready done, so it will be only a matter of short time, until we start.