alionmind News March 11, 2015

The news this time are, once again, that there is actually no news. Well, not really, because even though nothing new has been released, a lot has happened "in the background". And that will soon end the "lean period".

As announced, I firstonce generally stopped the work on video projects in order to fully concentrate on the release of the Willma Poppen album "Willma im Wunderland". And regarding to this, contrary to the first try, I take my time. I should already know that it is not particularly fruitful, but rather ends terribly, when I put myself under too much pressure actually ;).

So what actually happened regarding to Willma Poppen album then? For this I need (or I want) to tell you about my approach to the release of an album. You hopefully know all those pre-release versions that I upload to SoundCloud. These are more or less elaborate song ideas. They are sometimes closer to and sometimes a little farther from the final release versions. Generally I assume that corrections to both structure (composition / arrangement) and the mix have to be made. And that's what happens first when all the tracks are ready for an album in the pre-release version. In general then for each track the following steps are taken:

1. Create a final composition / a definitive arrangement. Here, all parts of the song are again placed under the microscope, imperfections are repaired, some things get improved and generally a version gets completed, that I regard as suitable for publication, regarding to the structure.
2. Export all mixer channels (dry and without compression) at 192 kHz sample rate in WaveAudio at 32 bit float resolution.
3. Import the audio tracks in a project (the mix) with exactly the same mixer channels and effects. For short: The generators, such as Synthesizers, are replaced by rendered versions in WaveAudio.
4. Now I mix the different channels, so that I get a good mix peaking at -6 dBFS. This mix is ​​rendered as a so-called. PreMaster in 192 kHz WaveAudio in 32-bit float, of course without any compression.
5. This PreMaster is imported into a completely new project. There I am doing what I call mastering. The result is then the final release version.

So far, so good ... How far am I with the 13 songs for the album? It may sound just like a little, but currently I have the final composition / the final arrangement ready for almost half of the tracks. For each of those tracks I have already exported each mixer track and created an approximate, but not finished, mix version. Not a single track is "mastered" yet. Regarding to this I must say, however, that a good mix reduces mastering almost to the task of increasing the volume to peak at 0 dbfs. So probably for many of the tracks, there's not much to do at the mastering stage.

Why does it take so long? As I said, I take my time and as I said, creating a good mix simplifies everything. So I currently put a lot of emphasis on that the arrangement almost delivers a good mix. Furthermore, I have experienced unpleasant surprises when I opened the project files of some of the older tracks and had to do some unexpected work in creating the final composition / arrangement of the tracks.

Well, and so that this blog post does not entirely come without sound and images, I embed 2 excerpts of the progress at the end as a small video. Well, at the moment this is all what I can give you. I would say that in one month it all will look better :D

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 December 17. 2013

And again, the monthly news blog is  a bit late ;) . The reason is roughly the same as last month, and if we continue like this, we will eventually get back to the first of the month ;). As I said, there is  not exactly much new to report. This is of course once again caused by winter time when my creative output is rather moderate in general. In addition, I am currently working hard to bring the alionsonny album "Continuity" in shape. Hah! I have an idea: I fill the space that remains free due to the lack of new releases with a small, long due explanation of how the process of production, quality management and quality assurance works here. I have indeed already explained it all several times on Facebook etc., but there's still allways somone who missed it... and someone is usually unfortunately the majority. So I will outline briefly the process from a song idea idea to the final album version (release version). Here we go:

The Creative Process

1. I have an idea for a song and create a small rough sketch.
2. This sketch is stretched to a length of 4-5 minutes and extended to a rough arrangement.
3. From this sketch I render snippets that appear promising and publish them on the official alionmind Work-In-Progress SoundCloud. This is to give a first early opportunity for listeners suggestions and comments. Here you can say "I like the idea (not)" and give suggestions for improvement for the first time.
4. This work remains for a period of a few days to several months, more or less untouched, on the hard disk.
5. Sometime I grab the thing and complete it to an audience compliant version. This is the so-called pre-release version.
6. This version will be uploaded to the SoundCloud of the project and is now until the completion of the release version available for commenting and criticizing. The Sound Clouds of the projects are:
• alionsonny
• Cimelium
• Willma Poppen
7. Once the (traditionaly) 13 songs for a project are finished in form of pre-release versions, I take a close look at each song again and improve what I recognized as improvable since the uploading of the pre-release version. Also I now look at any comments and suggestions from listeners and refer them in the improvement process. The changes between pre-release and release version can be just a few cosmetic improvements such as fixing the mix. But it can also be, that the entire song is changed drastically, as in the case of "Green Hills" (alionsonny album "Continuity"), that there is nothing left of the pre-release version.
8. Once all 13 tracks are in good shape, the album is finally released.

So you see : You, my listeners, are involved in the entire creative process of the creation of my music. I have already clearly understood one thing during my time as a software developer and IT consultant: A really good product can only be developed in cooperation with the customer. The more the customer is involved in the creative process, the more the product will also be his product. And this in turn increases customer loyalty to HIS product. And I 'm doing my music for you, so it should be your music. With the opportunity for each of you to place your own requests and suggestions at every moment of the creative process, I reach this goal.

So much for the explanation ;) . Finally, I want also to present the sparse creative fruits of the past month:

Willma Poppen - Maschinenmensch
We are joking already here, if Willma Poppen will beat alionsonny at the end regarding to to the album's release date. After all, with the publication of the pre-release version of "Maschinenmensch" the ninth title for the album "Willma im Wunderland" has been completed. And who was able to witness the development of the album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" in 2012, knows that everything can go pretty fast with Willma sometimes. And four remaining songs are done quickly. Well, I do not promise anything. I recently like to say: It's finished when it's finished ;). With "Maschinenmensch" I have consistently continued what I have already announced shortly after the release of "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" as a future development direction of the Willma Poppen Project: The sound is going more experimental. if you listen to the pre-release versions of the already finished 9 tracks for "Willma im Wunderland" you will notice one thing: This album is colorful. Read more about the genesis of "Maschinenmensch" in the Willma Poppen Blog. And here is "Maschinenmensch":



alionsonny - Brainforest Chapter III
It iss done! The 13th track for the album "Continuity" is here and thus the album is complete in terms of the song material. But as I already said, now the album versions must be created. Since the second part of the "Brainforest" series was published in 2006, some listeners asked again and again if there would be a sequel. For an album with the title "Continuity" I found it only fitting to produce not only tracks detached from the past, but also the continuation of an old, quite popular, idea. Since the first part of the series I had a specific scenario in mind on which I built the "soundscape" of the respective song. It should always have a "mystical jungle feel". In my opinion I achieved that goal with the third part even more successful than with the predecessors. However, "Brainforest Chapter III" is also a lot more complex than the previous parts. Read more about the song on the alionsonny blog. And here's "Brainforest Chapter III":



AlionLive - Return 2 Madeira - Day 11 - Part 3
Finally, the last short part of day 11 was uploaded. This probably most "alcoholic" of all AlionLive video finishes the chaotic 11. day of my trip to Madeira in an absolutely fitting way. But what do I tell? See for yourself:

Continuity?
Ok, and that was it for this time with the news ... STOOOOOP! I just remembered that it might be of interest, for the alionsonny listeners who wait for the album, to know how the progress on "Continuity" is going. And some also do not know which songs will are destined for the album also. Read the absolute up-to-date status on the alionsonny blog.

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.

Loads of work going on at the project websites!

Since the summer heat turns each task which involves heavy computing into a hazard for the studio hardware, the decision has been made to do some long due work at the project homepages. There has been some troubles with a little security leak in the homebrewn alionmind content management system. For that reason, the alionmind records homepage has been currently taken offline completely. But with the new shiny version of the content management system, a new security paradigm is ready, which allows me to get all homepages up and running in quite a short time.

And so it allready happened, that the homepages of the 3 main projects are available again in better shape than ever. And not just that: All homepages are now also available in German language. I know about some people who will be really happy about that. Look for yourself:

alionsonny's Homepage
Cimelium's Homepage
Willma Poppen's Homepage

If you did not allready recognize it: You can switch languages from the top menu. Just look at the right and you will see a flag and the name of the language you can change to. Just click there -> voila: Different language! ;)

So that was a bunch of work. What's next? As I said, the alionmind records homepage is currently offline. This is not just because of the security leak, but also, because the page will get a completely new layout. Because of the fact, that this page will be not just a bit different from the project pages, I will have to do some real coding work to get it up and running again. But I think, the alionmind nucleus will be online during this week.

By the way... we have no alionmind blog in German language -> on the to-do list ;)

alionmind News July 14. 2013

A lot of thing have happened at the alionmind labs since the last update on this Blog. And not one month has passed since then. I t is so much that has happened, that I will waste no further time and get right to the facts.

For Willma Poppen's upcomming Album "Willma im Wunderland", 2 new songs have been carefully crafted. One could be a perfect sequel for the previous tracks of the "Spacejourney" series by the alionsonny project. The track maybe a bit unusual for the Willma Poppen project, but stuff happens ;) Here is "RaumReise":
The other new song is quite complicated to describe and has it's own story, which you best read at the official Willma Poppen Blog. And here is "Karussell":
Excellent news also for the fans of elaborated reggae-ish and ska-ish sound madness by the good old alionsonny project. Also 2 new songs have been crafted during the past month. You folks wait for the new album for so long now, that the decision has been finally made, that the new alionsonny album has absolute priority. And as a start in that progress, the 2 new typical alionsonny productions were  created. Both tracks have a slight and heavily mangled Ska influence. The first one, "Flight of the Butterfly" is a rather lightweight happy bouncing thing. Listen for yourself:
The second track sounds not just a bit more "serious" and heavier in my opinion. It reminds a lot of songs like "Revolution Now" from 2007. Here is "The Storm":
So we are just 3 more tracks away from the new alionsonny album!

And of cause also the audiovisual side of alionmind has been served. There is also 2 new AlionLive videos available for you to watch. One is part 2 of the "Biketrip from Hamburg to Mölln and Ratzeburg" series:



and the other one is the long awaited continuation of the "AlionLive - Return 2 Madeira" series. Want to go on a mountain hike along a Levada with alionsonny? Here you go:



And that's it for our first monthly blog news issue. Yes, me and my friends will do our best to give you a shout here at the Blog at least once a month.

Keep rockin'

Long time no news...

Yes, this whole website has been somewhat... errm.. abandonned for some time. The whole idea regarding the alionmind webshop has been not cancelled completely but stopped, because there were and are  a lot of more important things to be done. So I deleted the postings regarding the webshop and want to focus this Website/Blog a bit more on... well... more important things.

So what has happened at the alionmind tower of power high above the roofs of north-east Hamburg? A LOT! So here we go:

1. In October the album "Mesopotamia" of Cimelium has been released.
2. Also in October the album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" by Willma Poppen has been released.
3. Songs for other projects have been finnished. Some of them have been showcased of Soundclous allready, many not ;)
4. AlionLive Madeira, my video series about my 2011 trip to Madeira, showcasing the (up to that date) complete catalogue of alionmind records has been finnished in October.
5. Sonny has visited the beautiful island of Madeira once again, brought back loads of raw video material. So it is time for "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira".

I want to highlight a special song release, which took place about 3 days ago. You remember the project TUBENWURST of the alionmind family? Yeah, maybe you thought that this would be just one more short living project by me, which I ditch after having some fun with it. But, no, despite the fact, that TUBENWURST released just 3 songs, of which one was originally still released under the name alionsonny, it is an important element of the alionmind projects structure.

That song released 3 days ago is titled Beatrice. And those of you who know me, will now wonder: Sonny does NEVER name songs after women, Sonny does not write love songs, Sonny is our well known robot-like authist from the neighborhood who doesn't show any feelings, eh? ;) Well, I will in fact not tell much about it, but the song Beatrice is in fact dedicated to a beautiful and very lovely person I met in Madeira. Yes, one could say, I fell somewhat in love. May the gossip spread like wildfire...
Ahh, nearly forgot: There's a little sweepstakes/contest going on and YOU can win 1 of 5 free downloads of the first album "Mesopotamia" by Cimelium. The contest finnishes on December 24th. So you still have a chance to win. For those who rather would like to win 1 of 5 free copies of Willma Poppen's "Heroes of the Popp-Culture": Wait until christmas. betweens the 24th of December and 1rst of January, you'll also get a chance to win what you desire.

Ok, what is happening now and in the near future:

1. With this blogpost, I am starting the alionmind records blog in german language also. For the near future a german version of the alionmind website will be here. This will take place in the course of a complete overhaul of all websites in my little empire. Be prepared for some serious changes.
2. AlionLive Return 2 Madeira will start as soon as possible.
3. More songs by the TUBENWURST project will be released so we can release an album called "Iss doch E-Wurst".
4. A new album of Cimelium is on it's way. Again it is a themed album. This time the title will be "Madeira"... and guess what is the theme of the album ;)
5. A new album of Willma Poppen is also on it's way. I have loads of wacky working titles for it, but... gimme some time.

Ok, that's so far everything comming to my mind. If I forgot something... well, who cares? ;)