What's goin' on?

Well, everthing which is not going off ;) Dunno if that "joke" makes sense in English language in German it does ;) So, there were no news posted on this Blog for quite a time. And because most of you do not read my news on Facebook, Twitter etc., it is most likely, that by now some of you ask themselves if everything is going smooth here at the alions den. Well, it does. Since my last post indeed some stuff happened. Not as much as I would have liked and some stuff happened not the way it was supposed to. Well, here's the story. I try to keep it short...

On New Years Eve a wonderfull friend (and even bigger Willma Poppen Fan) remembered, that she did not give any gifts for Christmas to me this year. You know: I do not give much attention to all that gifting stuff, even tho I like to receive gifts. But gifts aren't a must here. Well and that amazing lady has also a very amazing memory. And so she remembered that recently I answered her question about what I still want for my computer with "SSD and 8 GB of RAM to upgrade it to 16 GB". And so she dragged me to my trusted hardwaredealer and we bought the components. Now the experienced PC builder asks himself what troubles may lay ahead when installing those components... and the PC builder, experienced in trouble knows: "A lot!". And so it happened: After installing the components, my former system disk (which was to be replaced by the SSD) was no longer recognized by the system. This caused a little loss of data, which... well .. complicated some stuff. A rather lengthy data recovery process and some secondary problems with the new system also stole some time from me. Well, so far the decription of that little desaster, which caused quite a slowing down of my work at the start of the year. And still I got some stuff done, of which I simply forgot to report some here in this blog also:

1. Most of you will surely be happy about the fact, that the introduction part of "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira" is finally finnished and online. Ok, it is just an introduction, which consists of 99% me talking into the camera, but a start has been made. Now the rest will go rather smooth. There was not much of an opportunity during the hollidays and new year to turn my small flat into a videostudio and this, amongst a few other things, kept me from getting further with this. For the upcomming parts of ALR2M I must ask for your patience again, because the ammount of raw video material is gigantic and I will put more effort this time in the cutting and postproduction. But here's the introduction part for now. Have fun!


2. The "ghostproject", how friends call it, also did a big step forward. Which "ghostproject"? Well, TUBENWURST of cause! That project, which is, so to say, the sequel of the album "Electronic Spacerock" released it's third track so far. And this one is dedicated to a very special person I met on my next-to-last day in Madeira. And because of that the track is named after that person "Beatrice". Want to hear it? Of cause...


3. Around Christmas the first track of Willma Poppen after the release of the Album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" was released. So, this is the first track for an upcomming second album by Willma Poppen. You can read more about that in the official Willma Poppen Blog. Wanna hear the track? Here it is:


4. Around New Years Eve I startet a sweepstakes, where you can win one of five free downloads of the Album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" by Willma Poppen. Due to the IT-desaster described above, the promotion of that event was nearly completely trashed. Because of that, i decided to delay the drawing of the winners to the 30th of January. So you still have the chance to participate. Read the details in the official Willma Poppen Blog.

5. And what about the relaunch of all alionmind websites? Simple answer: Currently nothing! Due to the IT-desaster described above that got...complicated. Once everything is again up and running here, I'll work at it with full force.

So, what did I forget? Of cause something. Once I remember everything I forgot to write here, there will be an update. Until then: Be well and heads up, this winter will also be over one day ;)

State of emergency is starting today!

Yes, today I will get my lazy ass up and give all my project sites (alionsonny.com, alionsonny.de and everything under alionmind.com) a hefty update. It is time to wipe away all the amateurish away. Too much is still reminding of the hobbyist times when I gave away everything for free and to change the overall design of the websites to something more professional.

This will, most probably, become a tough ride for you as the website users. I cannot imagine the whole process to be free of any accidents. So stay tuned and excuse the one or the other "side-effect" of me working on the sites. If the homepage is not available, you will still get news via Facebook and Twitter. If something should not work for a longer time, and you think I forgot to fix something, don't hesitate to contact me via mail. E-Mail will allways work ;)

What to expect? My main goal now is to make it easier and more accessible to buy albums, to be able to listen to music and get the latest news without being distracting by unneccessary stuff.The websites and also the blogs will get a more uniform and pleasant look & feel and I want to create more possibilities of interaction between you and me. I will ask you about your opinion about some of my ideas during the time I am working at the whole thing. For examle somebody had the idea of an alionmind records forum. What do you think about that? Would you participate actively in such a forum?`Well, personally I think, that this all works with the Facebook Fansites allready.

Well, I will now start to work. So during the next hours, it is more than just possible, that instead of the websites, you will see a boring "under construction" message. I will keep you updated.

Win a download of Cimelium's album "Mesopotamia" & more!

It is time again to let you know what is happening here currently. A great occasion for that is the fact, that the music project Cimelium is giving away 5 free downloads of the album "Mesopotamia". That's something for those who have allways no money, eh? All details about your chance to win one of those free downloads, you can read at the official Cimelium Blog. You can take part in this until 23rd of December.

For all those who are waiting for "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira": Patience! I have a little creative mess regarding to the 3D intro and a small but powerfull sickness kept me from filming the introduction. But however: AlionLive Return 2 Madeira will start before christmas.

I work at new music at various fronts. The next you will most probably get, is a new song of the project "Tubenwurst", which did not really release much since it was declared to be the stylewise heir of alionsonny's "Electronic Spacerock". I have a track for that project allmost ready, which perfectly fits into the concept of electronic rock, synthpop and 80s music, which is actually the main genre direction of Tubenwurst. For Cimelium, I work at songs for the second themed album, titled "Madeira". I allready did some quite good work for that during the past days. And REALLY great progress can be reported from the progress of new works for the Willma Poppen project. Some people allready warn, that it may be confusing for the audience, if Willma Poppen releases a second album in 2012 ;) You see: Some great stuff is happening!

I also decided to give the websites of the alionmind records empire a new kick into a new direction. "Inspired" by a recent hacker attack on all of my websites, I found out, that some of the internals of the core content management system must be cleaned up. Also the overall handling and design of, especially, alionsonny.com is not just a bit dusted. It still breathes a touch of the old "I give everything away for free" era. That must be changed ;)

Ok, so far for the news and don't forget to participate in the Cimelium sweepstakes!

New Project "alionsonny's Audio Arsenal"!

Yes, here is something really new for you, especially for the musicians amongst you who work in the field of digital audio production. Over the years, I did digital music production, I collected a huge collection of free VST Plugins and other free audio software. No, I don't talk about the illegal, virus infested stuff, but legal free software. Often I have benn asked by fellow musicians, to publish a list of all that free stuff with download URLs. I have done this various times on various forums, but now I found a way to make it all a lot easier. I created the Blog "alionsonny's Audio Arsenal" and will from now on post a presentation of at least one free VST or Audiotool per day. Today I started with the indispensable Triangle II VST Synthesizer Plugin. Simply visit the Blog, preferably on a daaily basis.