AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - From Camara de Lobos to the Lido

And here it is already: The second part of day 11! This went quite quick this time. Ok, but to achieve that, I had to pause working on the new album during the past days. Don't worry: I'm already back on it, but more on that later.

The story: As already announced, this video shows a little "hike" from Camara de Lobos to the Lido, filmed using my inimitable "shaky cam technique". This video is especially recommended for those who plan to visit Madeira, because it shows the way from Funchal, along the coast to Camara de Lobos... but just in the reverse direction. And almost all newcomers to Madeira make that one mistake, that they think, that down at the beach it does not go further. The secret is the tunnel shown in this video where my camera did it's best to compensate for the bad light conditions , but once again failed miserably ;).

Größere Kartenansicht

The video shows also wonderful impressions of a sunny day on the promenade, accompanied by a few songs from the, hopefully soon to be released, album "Continuity". The soundtrack contains this time, except for one song, almost finished album versions (release versions). The soundtrack in detail:

00:00 - Madeira (Release Version)
04:55 - Bulletproof (Release Version)
9:58 - Green Hills (Release Version)
14:38 - Drunken Joe in Love ( Release Version)
19:03 - Going Bonkers (Release Version)
23:57 - A Sunny Day (Release Version)
28:55 - Flight of the Butterfly (Pre-Release Version)

As you can see, the video is once again a little longer, but 33 minutes is not too long, right? While we are at it: What do you think actually about the video lengths? Every now and then, there are people who write to me, that certain videos are too long. What do you think: Should I split such long videos generally into smaller parts? If so, what would be a good length? The good old 15 minutes? But I also want to point at the fact, that there are people who like to see things as a whole and they would complain if I split the videos into parts. Well, again the good old quote from Wilhelm Busch nails it perfectly: "To all people fairly done , is an art that no one can" (I don't know if this translation is even remotely correct).

Finally, I want to tell you of course a bit about the status of the album "Continuity". Slowly but steadily, the whole thing comes to an end. The song "Talking Cat" was transformed into the most probably final version yesterday and currently I'm working on "Flight Of The Butterfly". Don't worry: I know that the song is almost perfect and will not change too much. I just think that some things get too much presence and others do not ;). When this song is done, there are 4 songs left to work on, but all of these were produced in the period between August 2013 and now and therefore are quite up to date. So I would say very carefully, that there is not much left to do.

Ok, but now have fun with the new video . I am already working on the next one.

Finally: A new AlionLine Video! Come with me to Camara de Lobos!

Some of you already thought , I would have given up on the AlionLive channel, but did you really believe that? No, the reason for the fact that nothing went no further lately on AlionLive is much less spectacular. Anyone remembering the album "Continuity"? Yes, it has still not been released. But I can assure you that is not a musical "Duke Nukem 4 Ever". So the album will come and it will come soon. Well, and the work on this album occupied my whole creative energy recently. A little progress report: 5 of 13 songs have been "transformed" into the final release versions. The rest is pretty up to date and therefore it is unlikely to be much work.

But back to the video: When I decided shortly before the turn of the year to finally continue with the work at "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira", I noticed that a fresh intro would be quite appropriate. And as you know me, of course I once again went over the top and wanted a real Blender 3D intro. The ideas were blooming like a flower meadow and in no time I found myself in a whole lot of work. This then delayed the start of the actual video editing for a few more days.

The plot: As mentioned in the credits of the last video, on the evening of 10 Day, a little high-proof festivity took place. On the morning of 11 Day I felt absolutely unable to start serious ventures, namely hikes. As the weather was surprisingly sunny, it made ​​sense to insert a day of rest. And to not make things unnecessarily complicated, I decided to spend the day in Camara de Lobos. And this, with just under 15 minutes of run time unusual short video, is about that very stay in Camara de Lobos. It features, aside of the new intro, beautiful views of the picturesque fishing village of Camara de Lobos, the coast, Cabo Girao and there is a little "Sunday Sermon" - because it was a Sunday - from me also.

The whole is accompanied by three songs from the above-mentioned album "Continuity". Two are still in the pre-release version state and one in the final release version:

• Nero d ' Avola (Release Version)
• Pirates of Madeira ( Pre-Release Version)
• Ganja In the Jar ( Pre-Release Version)

This nearly 15 minutes of video is by far not everything that was filmed on day 11. I have decided once more to split the video material into two parts, because it fits thematically. The rest of the video material is about the somewhat long walk from Camara de Lobos to back to Funchal / Lido. I have captured large parts of that walk using my incomparable shaky cam technique and want to share this pleasure just do those who really want to view it. So it made ​​sense to separate the more quiet and short part about Camara de Lobos from the shake-o-rama, which will be soon available as part 2.

Yeah, what else to say? Actually nothing ;) . I am off to work again on the album and because of that, it may take some time until part 2 is ready. But now have fun with part 1.

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 10 Part 2 is finished!

Well, this time he took his time, eh? What? You saw that the video is available for 2 days already? Well, that surprises me ;). The rather very small number of views of my latest videos force me rather to suspect that almost noone visits this video channel anymore ;). In fact, I consider to abandon AlionLive in favor of music production. The channel initially was intended primarily as fun and secondarily as another way to promote my music. But both, however, does not work, if noone is watching the videos. So I probably, after the completion of the ongoing video series, will abandon the whole thing. I'm very sorry for the few people who like Alionlive, but I have to set priorities and keep an eye on what works and what not. Alionlive seems not to work. For this reason I have this time delayed the usual promo for the video waited a little, to see how many of you watch the video, if I just mention it briefly on Facebook... and do nothing else. And, well, the small number under the video says it all ;).

Never mind: Here is the promised second part of day 10. You remember: After a bus lottery, the choice fell on a bus to Camacha. Then I did a reasonably steep climb (it's Madeira) until I reached the beginning of the Levada. And here I stopped the first part, because I know not many people would love to watch a more than a quarter hour long shaky camera walk with me talking most of the time. The now avaliable second part is now really hardcore. For a total of 47:05 minutes: Shakycam on the Levada with me as a commentator. On the, quite interesting, trail I meet interesting people, I will tell you about some interesting and less interesting stuff and the technical planning to avoid the Shakycam during my next visit to Madeira. It has something to do with a cat and tape. During the entire path I had secretly suspected to be somehow not quite on the right track. This turns out to be 100% correct at the end of the video. Yes, at the end of this video you will experience good old Sonny absolutely destroyed and really indecisive ;) I indeed was lost and had hiked into the completely wrong direction. But you know: Before I really give up, the end of the world is coming! So there is a short and crisp part 3 of day 10 left in which I solve the problem with some effort. But that's currently still top secret ;).

The soundtrack of this video is again entirely from the new, old album "The Alion Archives", which is available for free download on alionsonny.com. The soundtrack in detail:

1. Heart Attack
2. A Banquet at Elvenwood Castle
3. Alion Smoke Signal
4. Midnight Summerdream Dub
5. On the Rocks (feat. Scott Durfinger)
6. Babylon DC (feat. Ital Roots Players)
7. The Scrolls of Alion - Chapter One - Desert Storm

...and here's the video. Have fun, if possible ;)

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 10 - It goes on!

Now it's been almost 1 1/2 months since I have uploaded the last ALR2M video. For those who follow my activities, I must not say why it was. For the rest I say just: 2 other AlionLive Videos (bike ride Hamburg-Mölln-Ratzeburg) and loads of new music. Also the video footage of day 10 gave me some quite unexpected problems. The uncut footage had a run time of about 1 1/2 hours, and I 've learned that videos with an unusual length like that one scare away some viewers. Not everyone always has tons of time available to watch a full-length video completely. So you mark the video for viewing  later on... but I also often simply forget about it later on. A much bigger problem with the video material of day 10, however, was as follows: Inspired by quite a few requests of some viewers regarding to long hiking sequences in which I point the camera to the front, I filmed a sequence of approximately 45 minutes in length, in which I did just that. In addition, of course I talk most of the time. This calls for complaints. So I have both problems solved as follows: The video is divided into 3 parts. Part 1 shows you everything before the "boring" hike, Part 2 is for the diehards and should not be enjoyed without being intoxicated if possible, and Part 3 will show everything after I got lost on the Levada and therefore left it. So everyone is free, to skip part 2... although that of course will ruin the complete AlionLive Experience.

So now for the first time since a long time, I upload a video with less than a quarter hour run time. The story: It already begins with a beautiful chaos. Actually, I wanted to take the bus to the Parque Ecologico do Funchal that day and walk from there to the Pico Ariero. Unfortunately I forgot some important stuff at the hotel and thus missed my bus. After the well-known buslottery I decided to simply go on good luck to Camacha, where I actually arrived in bright sunshine. Here I discovered a couple of signs that told me that I was close to some Levadas . So I followed the signs and found myself soon, and after a hard one hour climb, at the Levada. I followed the Levada through a surprisingly urban area (THERE ARE BUS STOPS!!!), until it really started... and here is where part 1 ends. Yeah, but look for yourself. Short, crisp and hopefully entertaining ;)

AlionLive - Return 2 Madeira - Day 9 - Santana

...and on we go! I have now spent exactly one month, enjoying the rare beautiful summer weather, but still was not completely idle. The delay of the release of this video was mainly caused by some problems with the 3D intro. Therefore, a new, simpler intro sequence was used in this video.

The Plot: On the ninth day of my trip to Madeira, I decided after the weather looked promising to make the long bus ride to Santana on the north coast of the island. Do not worry: I have not filmed the entire bus ride, but only 6 minutes ;). When I arrived in Santana, I explored the area a bit, got to know the local weather phenomena and decided to hike a little further west along the coast. Here, I got lost a bit and was allmost convinced to follow a rather desperate "backup plan". However, this was not carried out because I reached a saving bus stop just in time.

The soundtrack is completely from the soon to be released album "Continuity". Yes, exactly: The new alionsonny album has a name and will be published soon. But that's another topic ;).

1. Flight of the Butterfly
2. Nero d' Avola
3. Talking Cat
4. Green Hills
5. The Storm
6. Bulletproof
7. A Sunny Day
8. Madeira

And here's the video:

AlionLive - Return 2 Madeira - day 8B is here!

An attentive blog reader alerted me to the fact that I actually forgot, to announce the new part of "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira" in this blog. Well, I am currently very busy creating music, so something like this can happen. Yes, also for the project alionsonny new sound material is being produced again. Due to some unexpected and also unpleasant events you had to wait quite long this time for the continuation of the video series "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira". In addition, I wanted to get the new 3D intro done, which also needed some time to calculate (render). Now it is finally done: The second part of day 8 is ready for viewing on Youtube. And what a part: We walk from the picturesque mountain village of Santo da Serra along the Levadas to Ribeiro Frio. There it "traditionally" begins to rain. During the walk there is plenty to see and to hear, because I did also sing a unique original song creation ;).

The soundtrack is, as for the recent hike videos, once more completely by Cimelium. It introduces two brand new songs by the Cimelium project, namely "Iacta Alea Est" from the previously announced album "Ad Hominem" and "Parque do Lido 6:30 am" from the album: Madeira. The other titles of the soundtrack are from the albums "Mesopotamia" (available on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Spotify and Routenote) and "Madeira" (published in 2013). The soundtrack in detail:

1. Inanna (Album: Mesopotamia)
2. Rabacal (Album: Madeira)
3. Lilith (Album: Mesopotamia)
4. Pico Ruivo (Album: Madeira)
5. Alea Est Iacta (Album: Ad Hominem)
6. Parque do Lido 6:30 am (album: Madeira)
7. Dumuzi (Album: Mesopotamia)
8. Ribeiro Frio (Album: Madeira)

So, here's the video. I wish you much fun!

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 8A is done!

...and so am I. Phew, that was quite some work. This didn't get better by me catching a quite heavy flu. How was that video causing more work than all the others? Well, I do not really love to write subtitles. And this time a lot of them needed to be done. Why? You will know this, after you read about the special kind of video this one is a few lines below. ;) Also because of the kind of video, I had to manually place loads of fades between the moderation (me speaking) and the soundtrack. And before some "specialist" shows up, and says, that this could all have been done automatically by using sidechaining: No, this would have not worked, because the background noise would have "ducked" the soundtrack all the time. And no, a noisegate would have also not helped. Additionally I tried some funny new tricks this time. And now the attentive audience at Facebook knows, why it all took that long. But, thanks to me: It is done! Ok, what is the video about?

This is the first part of two for day 8 of my travelogue about my stay in Madeira 2012. I split day 8 into 2 parts because it starts with THIS long walk through Funchal and continued with a also long hike from Santo da Serra to Ribeiro Frio. It would have been a rather bad idea to "force" the audience to watch a allmost 1 hour long city walk, to be able to watch the Levada walk. Also a allmost 2 hours long video would scare some viewers away.

This video is about a walk from the hotel "Residencia Vila Lusitania" in Funchal Ajuda through the heart of Funchal to the central bus station near the cable car station to Monte. It features me describing quite a lot of things on the way in my own unique style. Please excuse my lousy English once again, which didn't get better by walking through a city, holding a camera, keeping track of the traffic, pedestrians AND speaking in a language, which is not my mother tongue.

I learned quite a lot, while producing this video: The facts described above taught me, that it is not really a good idea, to moderate that kind of videos in English. This is why I will never do this again in the future. This means, that future sightseeing ;) videos will be moderated in German and subtitled in English. Despite of the fact, that the multitasking lead to some funny moments (musician for electricity), the result was rather embarrassing... or what do you think? I also learned some new tricks of editing video which make this video more fun and also kept the time I worked at it at a reasonable level.

The soundtrack is completely taken from the first album "Heroes of the Popp Culture" by my music project Willma Poppen. It is allmost the whole album... and the "rippers" will be angry about the voice moderation ;) But why not buy the album? Where? There:

Amazon
iTunes
eMusic

And this is the playlist of the soundtrack:

1. Willma Poppen
2. Popp-U-Lism
3. Popp-Corn
4. Heroes of the Popp-Culture
5. Poppin' on Heavens Door
6. Popp-Eye
7. Mrs. Von Poppen's Funny Mushroom Omelette
8. Poppin' All Over The World
9. Strandspaziergang
10. Joyriding in Popp-Town
11. Childhood Memories

And now this is REALLY enough words. Here's the video:

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 7 - Santa Maria de Colombo is here!

Day 7 of my 2012 trip to Madeira could have been also titled a chaos day as day 6 was. Well at least the first hours of that day went somewhat chaotic. I seldomly have a clear plan for a hiking day, but I had a somewhat elaborated  plan for that day. I wanted to hike around Ribeiro Frio, and here especially to a place called Balcoes. There are balcones above the clouds at that place, giving you a breathtaking panorama on a day with good weather. And here we got into a problem: The weather was more than just rainy when I arrived at Ribeiro Frio allready, but it went more and more worse. When I arrived at the Balcoes, I had just some seconds to take out the camera, film a short scene in which one can barely see anything... and the hell broke lose. It is nor exageration if I say that again I was breathing water.

So first reluctantly and more and more willing, I decided to go back to FUNchal, spent some time to get all my stuff dried again and then thought about what to do with the big rest of the day. I could have done one more random hike around FUNchal, but I wanted to do a trip aboard the Santa Maria de Colombo also in 2012 at all. So, because it was sunny at the coast, I took the opportunity and went aboard.

This video will show you a lot more of the phantastic crew and other aspects of the ship aswell. Of cause, those of you who watched the 2011 video, will feel quite "home". The video has a runtime of 1 hour and 7 minutes, so you better reserve an evening with a good bottle of nice wine for this. For long passages I just pointed the cameras away from the ship to give you a bit more of the impression to be aboard yourself. But if you ever go to Madeira, you should of cause do a trip on the Santa Maria de Colombo yourself. It is an experience, you will never forget.

HERE IS THE WEBSITE OF THE SANTA MARIA DE COLOMBO, where you can get more information. You can book the tickets, either at the pavillon down at the marina, at their office at the Harbor, or book them at my friends of Book-it-here-Madeira.

The Soundtrack of the video is a colorful mix of (very) old and new songs by the alionsonny project, Willma Poppen, Cimelium and my baby project TUBENWURST. Here's the tracklist:

01 - alionsonny - Springtime 2009
02 - alionsonny - Going Bonkers
03 - alionsonny - A Sunny Day
04 - alionsonny - Talking Cat
05 - alionsonny - The Battle Of Aughrim
06 - alionsonny - Paddy Cronins Reel
07 - alionsonny - Drowsy Maggie
08 - Cimelium - Ribeiro Frio
09 - Cimelium - Pico Ruivo
10 - alionsonny - Never Born To Follow
11 - TUBENWURST - Fireworks
12 - Willma Poppen - Willma im Wunderland
13 - Willma Poppen - Strandspaziergang
14 - alionsonny - Gettin' old

And now have FUN aboard the Santa Maria de Colombo!

 

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 6 - A Chaos Day is ready!

Yes, it is done! The video of day 6 of my 2012 trip to Madeira is ready for you. Why do I call it a chaos day? Simple: Because nearly nothing worked as supposed. But I would not be me, if I wouldn't make to best out of it. First, we do a busride in timelapse mode (just 4 minutes) to Camacha and try to hike from there to Monte. The weather, some weather related obstacles and a near-death-experience forced me to abandon the hike and go back to Funchal. After a good meal and a full bottle of wine I started to hike towards Garajau to find Jesus. On the way to there streams of beer were flowing. In the end I didn't find Jesus and filled my spiritually emptines with good Poncha at a nice restaurant where I even made a new friend.

The Soundtrack:

1. TUBENWURST - Beatrice
2. alionsonny - Nibiru
3. Willma Poppen - Willma im Wunderland
4. Willma_Poppen_-_Madeira
5. TUBENWURST - 3 Kannen Kaffee
6. alionsonny - Tachyon
7. alionsonny - The_Scrolls of Alion Chapter 4 - Eternal
8. alionsonny - Alion Castle Theme

And here's the video. Enjoy!

...and there it allready is: AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 5B!

How many of you thought, that there would be a rather big time gap between 5A and 5B, eh? I have put pretty much effort into letting the 5B video follow as soon as possible. It was not particularly hard to get this done, because the video is only 18 minutes long. I have done that, so to say, as a byproduct ;). I made a little mistake during that. The intro of the video still says "Day 5A". Some very attentive viewers informed me about that. Sorry, I overlooked this and I don't want to re-uploaad the video.

This part of AlionLive Return 2 Madeira takes us to the most eastern part of the island. We hike from the most eastern point, accessible with a car, to the Cais do Sardinha. The video is that short because of the following reasons:

1. The hiking path was far more challenging than I thought and at many parts it would have been practically suicide to play around with a camera instead of taking care.
2. My footwear, sandals, was a additional source of hazard. Often I slipped out of them sideways while hiking on steep parts of the path.
3. 3. The weather was changing all the time very quickly and so I again had to protect the camera.
4. Especially up on the cliffs, the was a strong unpredictable wind blowing, which would push one off the cliff, if one doesn't pay a bit of additional attention. Also the wind was shaking the arm holding the camera quite heavily. This brought some additional shaking of the camera.
5. I simply had to get the hike done and get back to the bus station in time. Because I started the hike quite late, I had to hurry up. Video filming costs time.
6. At some parts, the heavy wind pushed the spray water from the oceans waves up the cliffs. This was another danger to protect the camera from.

Personally I think, that this part of AlionLive Return 2 Madeira, despite it's short runtime, is the best one so far, and that because of the quite great quality of the nature vistas. The soundtrack consists of cause of the brandnew alionsonny track "A Sunny Day" and three more tracks, not featured on any album so far.

Here is the tracklist:

1. alionsonny - Dinnertime For The Cats
2. alionsonny - A Sunny Day..
3. alionsonny - Springtime 2008
4. alionsonny - Summertime 2007

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day five - Busride from Funchal to Canical is here!

I decided to divide the video material of my fifth day in Madeira 2012 into two part, part 5A and part 5B. You allready know that from the 2011 "AlionLive Madeira" series. On that day I took the bus from Funchal to Canical and it was rainy weather. The destination was the most eastern point of the island one can get to by bus or car. The nearer I got to my destinatio, the better the weather was and at the end I got a real good dose of blue sky and sunshine. The part I present here is part 5A and is all about the busride. I did not completely film the busride, because I think you know the center of Funchal from a bus view quite good by now. And this is why I started filming later. Still a whole hour of video is the result. The complete busride took about 1 1/2 hours. In the next part, 5B, I will show you the hike.

The soundtrack is partly from the 2009 alionsonny album "Reggae?" and partly tracks destined for the new alionsonny album. Of cause also the brandnew alionsonny track "A Sunny Day" is featured.

Here's the tracklist:
01 - alionsonny - Madeira
02 - alionsonny - A Sunny Day
03 - alionsonny - Drunken Joe In Love
04 - alionsonny - Dr. Funkenstein (Album "Reggae?")
05 - alionsonny - Bulletprrof
06 - alionsonny - Springtime 2009 (Album "Reggae?")
07 - alionsonny - Going Bonkers
08 - alionsonny - Behold The Crest(Album "Reggae?")
09 - alionsonny - Nero d' Avola
10 - alionsonny - Talking Cat
11 - alionsonny - Life goes ON!(Album "Reggae?")

The first AlionLive in Full HD -> Day 4 of AlionLive return 2 Madeira is here!

Because my computer is quite fast now, I thought I will do the next logical step and release my videos in Full HD instead of 720p from now on. This eats up more harddisk space, rendertime and uploadtime, but there's nothing too much for my beloved audience. Was that too over-egged now? Anyway: Because of this, AlionLive is now even more pretty, colorfull, louder and unbeatable against foot odor. And to the critics, who analize the video and say that this is NEVER a bitrate for Full HD: Ir's not my fault, that my camcorder just does 15.000 maximum bitrate. If you want to sponsor me a better camcorder, you are welcome... exclusive adverts included. ;)

What you will see in the video? Good news for all those who get stomach cramps and diarrhea with vomiting when they see my pretty face: I'm not visible right from the start... but later. The video starts with very nice and very colofull flowers. Then we make our way to the Parque Ecologico do Funchal and experience a looong and exhausting hike across the plateau north of Funchal. During this we see beautiful, shocking and breathtaking vistas over Funchal and the wild mountainous landscape of Madeira. At the end the weatherconditions went apocalyptic, and that's no exaggeration, and prevented me from filming further. The video closes with a busride of about 15 minutes from Mote down to Funchal in the evening and some impressions from a nice meal at the incomparable O Dragoeiro.

The music is, with the exception of two tracks, from Cimelium and mostly from the album "Mesopotamia". But also the two new candidates for the upcomming "Madeira" album are present. "Pico Ruivo" even twice. The two exceptions are the two latest tracks by Willma Poppen "Apocalypso 2012" and "Madeira". By the way: I do not (yet) sell singles. Please tell me if you would like me to do it and I will... think about it ;)

And now, much fun in Madeira!

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 3 - Levadawalk Portela -> Ribeiro Frio

Once again it is done. A huge chunk of video material was viewed, all too embarassing stuff was cut out, everything subtitled and welded together carefully. The result is the latest part of "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira", your healthy family entertainment series.

This part is about the third day of the travel and brings us, after the initial "me talking into the camera" and a busride to Ribeiro Frio. NO, dear busride video haters: No fear. I didn't film the whole busride, because I was kept from it by a rude person taking the front seat and a thick chunk of fog hanging on the mountain tops.

In Ribeiro Frio we make our way along a beautiful Levada to Portela. On the way we see spectacular waterfalls, rocks, trees, unbelievable shaky camera images and me.... because of my lousy camera with thousand and one facial colors.

The music is composed out of old and new tracks. The newest are "Apocalypso 2012" by Willma Poppen and "Ribeiro Frio" and "Nossa Senhora do Monte" from the upcomming Cimelium album "Madeira".

The video has a runtime of 39 minutes. So get something to eat and drink. Why not longer? Simple answer: Like very often during that trip it was raining so often and so heavy, that I seldomly found a time when I could film without risking the life of my camera. Still there's enough to see. Have fun!

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 ;)

Back from Madeira, and now?

Yes, dear friends, I am since 2 days back from Madeira. And with me I brough 16 1/2 hours of raw video material. So, there will be a lot for you to watch on AlionLive soon. If you are on Facebook and are my Facebook friend, you can now watch a quite huge number of nice photos from Madeira there. Of cause I will upload the photos on Google+ too sometimes, but not now.

It will take some time until you can view the video, because i want to create a brandnew intro for "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira" and some new fresh music would also be good. Well... you know that ;) I have some new plans regarding to music. The new alionsonny album, I announced for until the end of this year will for sure be released and all the other allready announced things will happen too.

To talk about the new ideas for projects I had in Madeira, there will be a second album of the "Cimelium" project. Again it will be a concept album, this time titled "Madeira". It will have the traditional number of 13 tracks and each of them will be titled after a particular place in Madeira and I'll try to capture the atmosphere / ambient of that place in the song. The music will again be very relaxing and calm, but it will not contain the oriental sounds you know from the "Mesopotamia" album. I plan to release this album at latest in summer 2013.

I also work at new songs for a second album of the Willma Poppen project. After the initial approach of the project failed, because of my inability to produce stupid simple pop-techno in a music industry style, I will take the project on a path of ambitious, sophisticated pop-techno meeting my artistical ambitions. To plan a release date for that album would be, keeping all the stuff on my agenda in mind, not just a bit shady.

And then I have some stuff on my mind, I don't want to tell you about yet, because it is supposed to be a surprise for you. TIPP: When the "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira" videos are being released, watch each of them. I sing a particular song in there... ;)

By the way: A short remark on the Cimelium album "Mesopotamia" and the Willma Poppen album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture". I thought that my distributor Routenote would manage it to get both albums out on iTunes, Amazon and eMusic until I return from Madeira. As you can see if you check it, this is not the case. Believe me: I am for sure AT LEAST as unpleased as you about that. I will have to speak some serious words with Mr. Bennett tomorrow. This doesn't work at all that way!

Ok, and now I go back to work to bring you some firstclass entertainment. The show must go on!

AlionLive Madeira: That's it, folks... not really!

Now, after a bit less than a year it is done: The very last part of AlionLive Madeira is ready. All together, there is now 7 hours and 14 Minutes of AlionLive madeira available. The reasons why it all took so long to finnish is extensively described in the video. But those of you who follow my projects and other activities will allready know it.

The video features the last pictures from Madeira, a bit of the airport, a bit of the flight, but the biggest part of the video is a humble little collection of tipps for your travel to Madeira. I was a bit in doubt if I should do that, because after one trip to Madeira I am not really a Madeira-Pro. But the public demand for this was so overwhelming, that I had to do it.

The music is again from the alionsonny album "XperiMental ReggaeWorX" from 2004, my first album ever, and the album "Reggae?" from 2010. Here are again the links if you enjoy the music so much that you want to buy it:

"XperiMental ReggaeWorX" on:
Routenote
Amazon
iTunes
eMusic

"Reggae?" on:
Routenote
Amazon
iTunes
eMusic

Ok, that is done now! It was real fun, from my stay in Madeira, over the editing and publishing rith to the interaction with you. And if you are sad now, that nothing funny and uplifting will now come from Madeira... SURPRISE: The next trip to Madeira is allready planned and the title will be "AlionLive RETURN 2 Madeira". But here is, for now, the last part of AlionLive Madeira:

AlionLive Madeira Part 15 is here! Fun at the Beach & more!

Yes, that part was allready uploaded yesterday, but until now I had no time to mention it here at the Blog. This is the next-to-last and in fact last real part of AlionLive Madeira. It takes us to the beach again, this time one between Camara de Lobos and the Cabo Girao. Later we did a long walk in the evening along the coast back to the hotel. And then we had our last nice meal in a restaurant. Alltogether over 30 minutes of video are the result. The soundtrack this time consists entirely of songs from my first Reggae album "XperiMental Reggae WorX" from 2004. If you like the music, you can buy the album conviniently and not too expensive at the following shops:

• Routenote
• Amazon
• iTunes
• eMusic

And now, have much fun with the video!

AlionLive Madeira Part 13 is here! A Catamaran Trip and more!

Oops, nearly I forgot to mention that video here in my blog. Somehow I am not myself these days ;)

Yes, on we go with AlionLive Madeira and we are nearing the end at full speed. But then I have something new for you allready. The VIP Club ;) allready knows about it, and the others will experience a quite big surprise.

The current part, which is embedded below, is about a total of 2 visits to restaurants, a quite lengthy catamaran trip and a visit to a big shopping mall in total christmastime craze. So you will see a lot of interesting stuff in over an hour of video.

Ahh, nearly forgot: The sountrack is pure Reggae by the alionsonny project and the songs are destined for the new alionsonny album, which will be released before the end of 2012. It includes the recently published track "Talking Cat".

AlionLive Madeira - Pico Ruivo -The day after!

On we go with a rather short part of AlionLive. No surprise that this part is so short, because who likes to film on a day after a little catastrophe. If that day is mostly spent hikng heavily tired down the mountains, it is now wonder, that filming has the lowest priority. Everything else is described by me in the video in a quite unusual position.

The soundtrack of this video consists of the 4 most recent tracks of the Cimelium project.

Have fun and note: If you subscribe to the channel, you'll never again miss an AlionLive Episode. I would be very glad about some video comments. TIP: You do not need to upload videos to have a YouTube account ;)

AlionLive Madeira Part 11B is here! Hardcore Hiking in the mountains of Madeira!

Yeah, now it all goes quite quickly, because I really want to finnish AlionLive Madeira finally. And because of that I invested A BIT more time this weekend to get another part online. Yesterday it was just a, a bit strange, busride, but today it gets really venturesome and alionsonny and his girlfriend even get into life hazard! This part starts, where part 11A ended. After the busdriver kicked us off the bus a bit further inside the Madeiran heartland than Curral das Freiras, we went on a neckbreaking hike towards Pico Ruivo, the highest peak on Madeira island, which took us to an altitude of about 1700 metres. I will not tell more to not spoil it all.

The soundtrack is from my project Cimelium which will release its first album Mesopotamia soon!

And now have fun with the heaviest and most crazy stuff on AlionLive so far!