Saturday, December 15, 2012

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.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

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!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

The eternal Youtube Game - Stupid Copyright Claims

Time for a little rant again, because there's something which really gets on my nerves. Of cause you remember my AlionLive video about the biketrip to the Baltic Sea, right? And for sure you also remember a posting I wrote on this Blog, about that some people claimed, that the soundtrack, from my Pop-Techno project "Willma Poppen" was their intellectual property. Well, after a short time the claim was withdrawn and everything seemed to be allright.

Well, until I decided to monetarize my videos, which means, to put advertisings in them. When I did that, instantly a new copyright claim was made. "Times Music India" and again "One or more music publishing rights collecting societies" claimed, that there was a musical composition titled "Shakti" in my video. So I rejected that copyright claim again, by "disputing it"... as Youtube calls that process. Nothing happened. While the first copyright claim had been withdrawn in just a few hours, now nothing happened at all. In the video manager, beside the stupid copyright claim, there was a text which said, that "an answer is expected until November 6th 2012". And exactly on that date the copyright claim was withdrawn.

The monetarizing for the video was still inactive. So I clicked the "monetarize"-link again. And guess what happened... I got a message that this time even 3 parties were claiming a copyright on music in my video. This time it should have been a musical composition titled "Pearl's Girl". Meanwhile I found out that it is a song by the band "Underworld". I listened to that song on (now that's funny) Youtube, and could not hear any similarities to ANY song of the Willma Poppen project. The funniest thing about that is, that I found all existing versions of "Underworlds" song "Pearl's Girl" on Youtube on Accounts of which I am sure that they do not have any rights on the song. So, Youtube: Why do you not wipe that crap away in the first place before accusing honest musicians to use copyrighted music?

One more and maybe the most interesting fact is, that each and every song used in the "Biketrip to the Baltic Sea" video is used in at least one more video on my AlionLive channel and for none of those other videos a copyright claim has ever been made. A special thing here is the AlionLive Madeira part about a busride from Funchal to Curral das Freiras. It hads allmost exactly the same set of songs by Willma Poppen in it's soundtrack as the "Biketrip to the Baltic Sea" video. This video is monetarized and NEVER has a copyright claim been made by anybody.

So why is it all just happening with the "Biketrip to the Baltic Sea" video? In discussions at forums etc. about that topic some selfmade "professionals" talked about a magic tool by Youtube (Google) which magically scans videos for copyrighted content. Somehow this is impossible, because then that scanner would have found foreign content in the AlionLive Madeira video mentioned above also. Because that didn't happen, the idea regarding the badly calibrated contentscanner seems not to work. Additionally, I listened to each and every song mentioned in the copyright claims and even checked the digital waveform. There is not the slightest similarity between any of them and ANY of the Willma Poppen works.

The answer to the question why all this happens, seems to be connected to the number of views a video has. The "Biketrip to the Baltic Sea" video is the secondmost viewed video on my AlionLive channel and looking at the statistics it has the biggest potential. I don't now which objectives are the reason to deprive me of my ad revenues as long as possible, but this is for sure no propper business behaviour. I would have loved to talk about that issue to any "Youtube Support" but such a support does in fact not exist. What a absolutely unprofessional business is Youtube, that all the times new copyright claims can be made against a business partner, who repeatedly said, that he just uses his own works for his videos. I am able to bring each and every evidence that this is true. I am the only person in the universe who has the original raw material and project files for each and every bit of media which is used for the videos I upload on Youtube. It would be fine if one was able to sue the shit out of those people who allways claim that my works are theirs. But because the process regarding the copyright claims is totally intransparent, one is not even able to contact those idiots who claim copyrights on my genuine works, and ask them, for example, who crapped that giant turd into their so called brains, that they see a similarity between ANY work of the Willma Poppen project and, for example, "Pearls Girl" by "Underworld". By the way: I feel not honored by that comparison at all.

So, one can only hope, that there will be a better, more professional video upload service one day, which values it's creative users a bit more. Nuff said!

So here are again the copyright claims so far... for your amusement:
  • "Victorious", musical composition
    • Copyright claimed by: One or more music publishing rights collecting societies
    • Note: Initially there was a copyright claim here too by the company Rumblefish, which became world famous for claiming a copyright on bird tweeting. Funny, that this claim has totally vanished ;)
  • "Go Getter (David Wiegand Alternate Mix)", musical composition
    • Copyright claimed by: One or more music publishing rights collecting societies
    • CD Baby              
  • "Shanti (Instrumental)", musical composition
    • Copyright claimed by: Times Music India
    • One or more music publishing rights collecting societies           
  • "PEARL'S GIRL", musical composition
    • Copyright claimed by: The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA)
    • One or more music publishing rights collecting societies
    • UMPG Publishing

Sunday, November 18, 2012

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!

Monday, October 29, 2012

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:

Thursday, October 25, 2012

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:
And now, have much fun with the video!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

"Mesopotamia" by Cimelium is now available on Routenote for just 8,45$!

Yeah, that went quick. Thanks to James Bennett at Routenote and a big apology by me, because the problem with the album was indeed MY FAULT. I didn't simply understand the difference between 1415 and 1425 pixels. I think I never felt that stupid in my whole life. ok, but now everything is great and James even was so kind to approve the album immediately. So i am happy as a man can be. So, if you want the album right now and have no problems paying in US$, THIS IS WHERE TO CLICK to get to the albums page in my Routenote Shop. If you did not pre-listen the whole album by now, you can do it there aswell as on the Cimelium Soundcloud page. Have fun, folks!

Ahh, by the way: If you want to listen to most of the tracks of the album and watch wonderful impressions from my favorite place on earth (Madeira), there are 4 parts of my video series AlionLive Madeira available to do so. Here they are:



The album "Mesopotamia" of the Cimelium project is READY!

Yes, it is done! Yesterday I finnished the last track, titled "Dagon", of the Cimelium album "Mesopotamia". But, once again, I have some problems with the distribution service Routenote. When I tried to upload the album yesterday, the uploader refused to accept the coverart, though it was of the correct dimensions and in the propper fileformat. This means that everything stuck at the first step of the upload process. Well, no idea what is wrong again. So it will take some time until the album will be available at the Routenote shop and even more time until it will be available on iTunes and Amazon.

Well, you know that all from the release of the Willma Poppen album allready. Now, there's just a rather inconvinient way to get the album for those of you, who want the album right now. Here is how it works:
  1. The price for the album is 9,90 Euro or US$
  2. Send me that ammount of cash either to my Paypal (alionsonny@alionsonny.com) or send me a mail to the same address if you do not like Paypal for any reason. I will then provide you with banking details for a bank transfer.
  3. If you payed via Paypal, please send me an additional mail with an e-mailaddress, to which I can send the album.
  4. Once I receive your payment, I will send you the album in an archive via mail.
  5. IMPORTANT: Please make sure, that your mailaccount allows attackments up to 150 MB!
  6. If you are, for any reason, unable to receive the album via e-mail, please provide me with a postal address, so I can send you the album via postal mail
Again, I'm very sorry for the inconvinience. It is not really my fault. Once I earn enough cash by selling albums, I will for sure use another distribution service. For those of you, who did not pre-listen the complete album by now, here's a player where you can do so:



If you just do not know the latest track "Dagon", here it is:

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Next-to-last track for the Cimelium album, "Enlil", has been released!

Ok, folks: I wrote all the stuff for the Cimelium blog allready, but most of you seem not to be able to visit this official Cimelium Blog ;). This is why I still have to announce news about the Cimelium project here also. But since I have loads of stuff to do and am too lazy to write a new blog entry for this blog, I simply copy & paste the Cimelium blog entry here:
With giant steps I head towards the release of the "Mesopotamia" album. Only one more track and we are ready to go. The track "Enlil", which I uploaded yesterday allready and just somehow forgot to promote at the blogs, is again somewhat different than the other tracks. It is, what i call a "free floater", which means, that there's no prominent and particular melody line or alike, but just a floating carpet of sound. It mainly consists only of a pad-synth which I sampled and then mangled thru a sequence of effects units which are constantly automated to achieve an evolving soundscape. Still I added some string-instrument arpeggio and some majestic brass-thingies to enhance the listening experience. Well, again i hope you enjoy what you hear and I'll do my best to finnish that remaining song for the album this weekend so the album can be released next week.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

News from the project Cimelium: Tiamat!

And finally here is a new song from the project Cimelium. You remember it, right? Well the most recent song destined for that album was released more than 4 months ago. The Willma Poppen album really halted all work at this album.

Und this now is one of the last missing 3 songs for the album "Mesopotamia". Because I want finnish that album this month and there are barely 2 weeks of the month left, I have to do one song each week. This really SHOULD be possible.

This current work is quite different from all the other songs on the album. To describe why is somewhat difficult. best is you take a listen yourself and I hope you like it.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

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".

Friday, October 12, 2012

Finally: New Reggae by alionsonny - "Talking Cat"!

Hey! One was the last time you got some new music from alionsonny? No, I do not mean Willma Poppen, Cimelium etc. I mean Dub(Reggae) from the alionsonny project itself. Yess it has been a loong time since then.

Well the last signal you got from alionsonny was on July 5th 2012, and it was just one of the 3 finnished remakes of alionsonny antiquities. So it was not really something new. To find a real release of a genuine brandnew song, we have to go back much further in time to February 9th 2012. Back then the second part of the AlionLive Madeira video series was released, which contained the new song "Madeira". By the way: Somehow I didn't mention the actual release of the song "Madeira" in this Blog. So 8 months have passed since you got a new Reggae track from me. Now that I am realizing this, I can very well understand why some folks got a bit grudgy against me.

But to make you Reggae fans a bit happy and to "make you a bit hot", there's not just a brandnew song below this post, but also I want to announce that a brandnew alionsonny album will be released in 2012. Now, that the work at the Willma Poppen album is done and there are just 3 songs left to do for the first Cimelium album, there's enough space to create an album for you, the first fans I ever had. Like allways the album will contain 13 tracks, of which 8 are allready finnished. Those works are from 2010 to 2012. So there's just 5 tracks missing, and those i will create if I stay healthy and no creative blockade hits me prior to the end of 2012.

Ok, and now have fun with a brandnew alionsonny song, titled "Talking Cat":

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The Album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" now for 8,45$ at Routenote!

Some allready asked, when the first Willma Poppen album will be finally available for download online. In fact some time has passed since the release of the album has been announced. The reason for this is, that, to put it politely, the Routenote website is not really perfect. Something really went wrong, so the release was not just a bit delayed. But with the great help of Routenote's James Bennett we got the album at least into the Routenote shop now. The release at iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc. now will take another 2 to 6 weeks. then you will be able to buy it using your native language, pay in Euros or whatever your countries currency is, or you can simply stream it using Spotify. Until then: If you want to get the album quick and in a not too complicated way, click here to buy it at the Routenote shop. Hint: If you want to do me a special favor: If you buy the album at Routenote, I keep 100% of the cash. If you buy it somwewhere else, I get less money.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

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 ;)

Sunday, September 30, 2012

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!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

AlionLive Madeira continues - Busride to the wild heart of Madeira!

Yeah, again it took a while and some folks were getting on my nerves allready. When does the last one get the fact, that pressure makes me doing the complete opposite of what those folks intend to achieve? ;)

But in fact there were reasons why it all took so long. The first reason is, that because of the rather lousy summer, my annual fall-/winterdepression kicked in a bit earlier this year and gave me a nice creative block. Additionally I wanted to create at least one brandnew song for that video once again, which was not so easy to, because of reason 1. But, and now hold your breath, there's not just one brandnew song in this video, but FOUR! This is because I worked with full force at the first album of the Willma Poppen project. And exactly this is the reason why the complete soundtrack for this video is from the just released album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" by Willma Poppen.

The video is again a part with 2 sub-parts... complicated? You allready know that. There is a part 11A and there will be a part 11B. I do this, because this part 11A is about a busride to the wild heart of Madeira to get us to the starting location of a hike. And the hike then will be the topic of part 11B. I just find it nicer to keep that in different videos. Besides the rather "aesthetic" reasons for doing this, there's also technical reasons, but i do not want to bore you with that stuff ;) Well, actually everything is said now. Have fun with the video!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The first Willma Poppen album is OUT NOW!

Yess, you can order the album right now, BUT... there are some difficulties... unfortunately... Ok, as you may know I distribute music via the retailer Routenote and it seems, that it will take some time until the album is on my Routenote shop and then it will take another 2 to 6 weeks until it is available on iTunes, Amazon etc. I do not want to bore you with the details...

But I really want you to be able to get the album right now, especially because some of you have been waiting such a looong time for it. So the only way for you to get the album is to order it from me directly. To keep it all short & crisp, here's what to do:

1. The price of the album is 9,99 € or 11,99 US$.
2. Send that ammount of money either to my Paypal account (alionsonny@alionsonny.com) or write an E-Mail to alionsonny@alionsonny.com and I will send you the banking details for bank transfer.
3. Once you have sent the money, please write me a mail with your name, your E-Mail address and method of payment.
4. Once I received your payment, I will send a RAR-archive containing the album to the E-Mail address you provided. If this doesn't work for you, I will provide you with a download link where you can download the album.

What you get is all 13 tracks of the album in pristine 320 kbps MP3 quality plus the front cover graphics in high resolution. Talking about quality: This is NOT the bad quality you can listen to at Soundcloud or in the AlionLive videos. Soundcloud as well as Youtube heavily compresses the audio and I am allways disappointed when I upload either a track to Soundcloud or video to Youtube how bad it sounds there. So if you buy the album, you will be able to listen to Willma Poppen in a quality you have never heared before.

If you have ANY questions about the ordering process described above, if you prefer a different way of payment or of receiving the album or a different audio format, please feel free to send an E-Mail to alionsonny@alionsonny.com and I will do my best to help you.

Sorry for the inconvinience
alionsonny, Mastermind of the Willma Poppen Project

Monday, September 24, 2012

Done! The last track for the Willma Poppen album is HERE!

Yeah, we've been quite busy, yes?  During one month we released 4 tracks! I think this deserves some praise, eh? And if this wasn't enough: We released a total of 8 tracks this year. I nearly cannot believe it myself, if i think about the fact, that in the 3 years before we barely managed to release about 4 tracks. Well, now it is done and we are allmost ready to release that long awaited album.

What is keeping us from releasing it just NOW? Well, principles of me, Sonny von Alion, grandmaster of the Willma Poppen Illuminati lodge. I noticed some, not just little, oddities in the mix of 3 of the total of 13 magical tracks destined for the album. All those of you who listened to all 13 tracks not just one time, will know which tracks i am talking about. I will take a CLOSE look on the original project data of those tracks and see what i can do. And THEN when everything sounds like I want it, THEN the album will be thrown at the hungry audience. DEUS VULT!

And now, without any more words, here is THE HOLY ARPEGGIATUS!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Dances with Bears: Willma Poppen did it again!

And once again there's new sounds from the Willma Poppen Project. If you followed the project so far, you will know, that there is just one track to do until the first Willma Poppen album will be released. Well, we've come a long way, eh? Also the frontpage of the coverart is allready done and you see it at the top of this posting. I must confess, that my creative share at creating it is rather small, as it is a very old painting depicting the french revolution. To all my envious "haters": Forget it: The man who painted this has gone to his forefathers over 100 years ago. So there's no way to sue me over this ;)

The current song with the nice title "Disco Bear" again is a collaborative work with my partners from the project. And so, without any more words we will enjoy the nice sounds of another Willma Poppen song. Enjoy!

Friday, September 14, 2012

GOAL! Willma has calved for the second time in just ONE WEEK!

Yes, dammit! it has happened! Do you remember the days when there was about a year of nothing between two Willma Poppen song releases? Holy shit! And now it happened: The second song release of the project in just four days! This time dear Willma takes us back to her happy childhood, when sandbox friends died in questionable ways and other stuff happened you better do not ask about. Well the colder and darker time of the year is approaching and Willma (at the young age of nearly 130 years) becomes somewhat sentimental.

This current release is again a work with 3 and a half of the most contributing project members! I salute you! And now have fun with the new release!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Willma Poppen did it again! New song "Joyriding in Popp-Town"!

Yes, dear friends of the Popp-Madness: It is done again! Fasten your seatbelts (or not... on your own risk), because Willma really puts the pedal to the metal this time. The new track is titled "Joyriding in Popp-Town" and is not just a bit different from the previous Willma Poppen releases. You can read all about it and the quite interesting story about it on the official Willma Poppen Blog. But you can listen to it here too if you are not interested in the facts behind it's creation. Enjoy some joyriding in Popp-Town with Willma!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Finally we continue with AlionLive Madeira!

Ok, this is a rather short episode of AlionLive Madeira, but I think it is quite a nice one. As announced quite some time ago, this video is about a adventuresome bus ride from the botanical garden of Funchal to the town center. To ride a bus in Madeira, is, because of the natural characteristics of Madeira, a real adventure and, as I think, nearly all busdrivers, for example here in Hamburg, would not be able to get just a part of the route, you see in this video, done without having an accident. Often there is less than a hands width between the bus and vehicles comming from the opposite direction, a wall or a cliff nearby the road. I still had a bit of vertigo viewing that video and at some parts I thought "Well, good that the route did not continue on THAT street". Riding a bus is an adventure nobody traveling to Madeira should miss. It doesn't cost much and that adventure beats many things you can do in Madeira which cost a lot more and it is much more of a thrill.
The music in this video is from my albums "XperiMental Reggae WorX" and "Reggae?", which are available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and Routenote.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

New song by Cimelium, "Ad Hominem", has just been released!

While not just a few folks are waiting for the first album "Mesopotamia" by Cimelium, a new song with the title "Ad Hominem" has been released out of the order. After all that song has been finnished quite a while ago. It was just, that I allways thought I could add something to it and make it less repetitive. But each try to add something to the existing work ended in that I felt it was disturbing the flow of the whole piece. Today i decided, that the song is good as it is and when my girlfriend agreed on this, i decided to just release it as it is. Now just a few people will ask, where they can buy it. My answer is: Well, I don't like to sell single songs much, and prefer to sell them on complete albums. SHOULD there be a considerable number of requests for a way to buy that song, I'll will make it happen that you can buy it from iTunes, Amazon etc. So, if you are interested in buying that piece of music, just let me know about it via the well known means of communication or just write a comment below that blogentry. Otherwise the song will be released on one of the future Cimelium albums. And there we are again at the topic "Cimelium album": Yes it will be released soon! But the fans of Willma Poppen are also waiting for their album and are, because of that, getting on my nerves why nothing is happening there. Additionally I am also working at the new alionsonny album, for which also a serious number of folks are waiting, and I am also working at some other project about which i talked too much so people are bothering me about them too. Well, I could write on and on and on about what you people out there are waiting for, but I prefer to showcase the latest song of Cimelium. Here is "Ad Hominem"! Enjoy!

Friday, August 10, 2012

A new AlionLive Episode... and trouble with Copyright Trolls on Youtube!

Well, actually I just wanted to inform you about the new AlionLive video I uploaded yesterday... if there wasn't our beloved Copyright Trolls, who force me for the first time since quite a time to do a rant. What has happened? After a long time of editing I uploaded the Alionlive episode about my biketrip to the Baltic Sea yesterday evening, and it is by far not the first time, that the contentfilter of Youtube kicked in or some Copyright Troll claims I violated his "intellectual property". However that works internally at Youtube, today there was that well known message beside my freshly uploaded video which said "Matched third party content", which means, that someone "thinks" I violated their copyright. Well, let's have a look. I click on that link and get to know that it is suspected, that my video contains portions of the following foreign content:

 "Go Getter (David Wiegand Alternate Mix)", musical composition administered by: 
rumblefish 
One or more music publishing rights collecting societies

"Victorious", musical composition administered by:
One or more music publishing rights collecting societies 

This means, that Rumblefish AND one or more publishing rights collecting societies have the opinion, that my video contains a song titled "Go getter", to be more precise the "David Wiegand Alternate Mix". A short recherche resulted in, that this song is by an artist with the very creative artistname Michael. But that's not enough. ADDITIONALLY one or more publishing rights collecting societies have the opinion, that my video contains some musical composition with the title "Victorious". 

Ok, here's my answer to this: 
The first claim i understand as a 100% insult against my works, because I have seldomly listened to something boring like "Go getter" by that guy who calls himself Michael. Techno at all is a genre, some artists use as an excuse for their lack of musical creativity, but our dear Michael with his track "Go getter" sets new standards regarding this. Well, EACH technotrack sounds a bit like "Go getter". Why? Because this track is so simple, that you can hear a bit of "Go getter" in each and every technotrack ever produced. It is puzzeling me, that somebody can hold a copyright on something simplistic like that. But let's see... who is claiming a copyright on that track besides one or more publishing rights collecting societies? Rumblefish? Aren't those the guys who claimed a copyright on birdsinging recently? Ahhh I get it! Now Rumblefish wants to claim a copyright on the 4/4 rhythm with the bassdrum on each beat and the prominent use of so called SuperSaws. Because that's all "Go getter" by Michael has to offer... and has in common with a few of my works. And now for the second claim: What is "Victorious"? A song? A band? Ahhh, no it's a "musical composition"... by who? Who's the composer, the performer, the actual copyright holder? ...distributed by which label? Sorry dear Youtube folks, that's a bit vague claim, don't you think? 

So I filed (it's not for the first time) a dispute about those false claims and... after just about 5 minutes I had a mail in my email, that one or more publishing rights collecting societies have checked my objection and withdrew their claim. A glimpse on the status page told me, that this was just for the "Victorious" claim but not for "Go getter" by Michael. The question which came to my mind was, if one or more publishing rights collecting societies directly and within 5 minutes went to my video after I rejected their claim and withdrew their claim because they recognized it was all my own music... Why not the other one regading "Go getter" too? And Rumblefish? i think they really want to copyright the 4/4 rhythm with the bassdrum on each beat and the prominent use of so called SuperSaws. ;) 

FACTS: 
All video- and audiomaterial of that video is like allways my own self produced content. The music is, with the exception of one song, by my sideproject Willma Poppen project. And the only exception is one song I released under the artistname alionsonny. Here's the tracklist:

 0:00 -  0:55 alionsonny - Intro
 0:56 -  5:07 Willma Poppen - Willma Poppen
 5:08 - 10:30 Willma Poppen - Popp-U-Lism
10:31 - 14:33 Willma Poppen - Popp-Corn
14:34 - 19:28 Willma Poppen - Poppin' on heavens Door
19:29 - 24:22 Willma Poppen - Heroes of the Popp Culture
24:23 - 29:29 Willma Poppen - Mrs. Von Poppen's Funny Mushroom Omelette
29:30 - 34:25 Willma Poppen - Poppin' All Over The World
34:26 - 39:48 Willma Poppen - Strandspaziergang
39:49 - 44:40 Willma Poppen - Popp-Eye
44:40 - 47:53 alionsonny - Entomologia 

I strictly advise Youtube to look out for a better contentfilter and/or not to listen to each and every copyright troll in the multiverse. I really think about claiming the copyright for "Go getter", because that strange use of a 4/4 rhythm with the bassdrum on each beat and the prominent use of so called SuperSaws seems to be copied from the Willma Poppen Project ;). No, just kidding! That shitty capitalism which is basically responsible for bullshit like the one this rant is about, will eat itself. And now have fun with my latest video:

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Willma Poppen has done it again! New song "Strandspaziergang"!


Yeah, people complain that i post so many updates about my other projects on the alionsonny Blog. But folks: As long as people allways complain they do not get to know about new releases of my other projects, I am forced to post updates also here. It would be SO simple, if you all would subscribe to the official Willma Poppen Blog, visit the official Willma Poppen Website on a regular basis, like the official Willma Poppen Facebook page or become a friend of mine on Facebook. All that are sources for the latest information on new releases of Willma Poppen.

Yeah, so far for the info about keeping updated on Willma Poppens releases. You want the music, right? Here it is, the new chartbreaker of the Willma Poppen Project and another step towards the glorious Willma Poppen album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture":

Sunday, July 15, 2012

News from Willma Poppen - Poppin' All over The World

Yes, AGAIN... Well, some of you will say FINALLY! However: The dreamteam of superb Popp-Techno once again came together to set the dancefloor on fire. The ne track goes back to the very sound roots of the project and thus those will enjoy it most, who faithfully stood by our side (or in our way ;) ) since the first soundwave by our project was created. And that#s not all good news from the Wilma Poppen project. The next song is also allmost ready. Just a bit of polishing, and then also this song will be ready for you to listen. Just for listening... but no downloading, some of you will complain. What was the original intention of the project back then again? TO GET RICH! YEAH! But we will not get rich, if we give away everything for free. THEN PRODUCE AN ALBUM, SO WE CAN BUY IT! Yesyesyes, we are allready working at it. But because of good old tradition of the project founder (c'est moi), there are 13 magical tracks on each album. So let me think: The current released song is the 8th. With the allmost done one it is 9 tracks. So 4 are still missing. I bet you'll have the patience to wait for them to be finnished. It will take no additional 7 years, promised. But here and now our new track! Have fun!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Regarding my birthday on July 19th

Yepp, folks, again a year has passed and on July 19th I reach the age of 44 magical years. Why do I mention this on that Blog, which is usually only for things regarding my creative activities? Well, that's not very easy to describe. I have a little problem, which is caused by the great fact, that there are many kind and loving people out there, who want to send me a gift for birthday. Yes, even such beautiful facts can morph into some kind of a problem. Of cause I am very happy if I get to know somehow, that there are kind people who think about how they can make me happy on my birthday. No question!

So what's the problem? A few days ago, I told some folks (who like to talk to others ;)), that I urgently need a new tent and sleepingbag for my tours. My existing tent and sleepingbag are in a very ugly condition because they are of biblical age. The tent poles are damaged and the tent itself has no impregnation anymore. At the sleepingbag the filling is comming out. Well, very quickly there were not just a few kind folks, who thought, that this would be a great birthday present for me. Maybe it was my experience which lead to the fact, that the next nights I had nightmares about my flat being filled with mountains of tents and sleepingbags, so i was drowning in them. The problem is, that neither me or others know what you decided is your birthday present for me. And so it can happen, that suddenly I sit there with 20 tents and 50 sleepingbags... which is not really optimal...

Because of this, I set one thing clear now and here: The person who gives me a new tent and sleepingbag for birthday has stated to do so and therefore there's no use for anybody else to do the same. Therefore I beg all those who eventually had the same idea, and HOPEFULLY didn't buy anything yet, to think about another gift. Again: Several dozens of tents and sleepingbags are not on my wishlist. So pleeeeaaaaseee.... I am very sorry if you , after you thought everything was clear, now have to think about a different present, but I need just one sleepingbag and one tent.

Ok, you got the information that I need a tent and sleepingbag from me myself & I. So why shouldn't I tell you, who now lost his birthday gift idea, what would be an alternative and what else I wish for my birthday? I'm a practically thinking guy ;) So, what do I need? Because I do not want to stretch your financial abilities, I do not mention the bigger wishes... WHAT? You are rich and want to know about them? Well, I could use a quite powerfull laptop for my planned livegigs (live dubbing etc.) and also maybe a nice solid state disk... Well, YOU wanted to know it *LOL* Nope, let's keep it realistic: I allways have a lack of battery power for my Panasonic HDC SD40 camcorder. I would really love to go on a biketour for AlionLive or so for several days without the need of a wall socket. Well that would be a nice idea for a birthday present and I can't get enough battery capacity for my camcorder ever. And that stuff is not very expensive.

Anything else? Not really something I can imagine right now. If you want to send me something for birthday now and you don't know what, you can still do me a favor in gifting me some cash. See: A laptop with the power I need is about 400 Euro. If just a few of you out there send me some cash via Paypal (or otherwise -> let's talk), then even such a relatively big gift as the laptop and/or the SSD are not impossible. My Paypal address is alionsonny@alionsonny.com and if you don't like Paypal, just contact me using the same mailaddress so we find a different way.

However and whatever you send me for birthday, I will be happy about it... unless it's a few dozens of tents and sleepingbags ;)

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Flying Dutchman Dub (2012 Version) is ready!

The new old album is making good progress. Again an alionsonny classic has been transformed into a new and up to date shape. It is the old and well known "Flying Dutchman Dub". I have also decided to not re-record "Versionist Dub" and "Malina Dub" for the new album and keep the old versions. Both songs have a great mix allready and I couldn't find something I would change at them. So 5 of the traditional 13 tracks for the album are ready. But back to the "Flying Dutchman Dub": When i told some friends yesterday, that I am just remixing the "Flying Dutchman Dub",as expected some folks went on the barricades and said that track was allready superb. But that track had, like many, that special "early alionsonny sound", which originated simply from the fact, that I mixed my first tracks without good headphones but just with cheap PC speakers for 30 Euros and didn't know that the bass would make walls crumble on a good stereo ;) Aside from that it was not really a Dub, but just a nice Reggae with som effects on it. So I fixed that totally bass overloaded mix and added a big shovel of DUB! I hope you like it. The album is comming soon -> I am at work!

Saturday, June 30, 2012

AlionLive Madeira Part 10 is online!

Done! This was really a lot of material I had to edit. The source material was about 1 hour and 20 minutes and has been edited down to about 50 minutes. This part is a bout a visit to the botanical garden of Funchal and those who know me, know what it means if an alionsonny armed with a video camera ends up at a place full of interesting plants and beautiful flowers. There's much to see, especiall flowers and plants and... flowers. I decided to divide this day of the trip into two separate videos. So, note: There will be again part 10-A and 10-B. Why that? Well, after walking thru the botanical garden, we didn't feel like walking back all the way to Funchal center on our feet and took a bus. Riding a bus at Madeira is a very special adventure, so I didn't want that busride to be overlooked in all those plants and flowers. And so to make sure, you do not miss that furious busride, I decided to put it in a separate. This video will soon be uploaded. But now have much fun with the impressions from the Jardim Botanico in Funchal! Edit: Youtube seems to have some troubles today and shows an Content Encoding Error instead of the embedded video. If so, just visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJslqe9elU 

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Pharao Dub (2012 Version) has just been released!

If you have not yet read the previous posting, you should do it now, because it is essential to understand the following.

The second song of my 3 problem albums has undergone a total overhaul. It is the song "Pharao Dub". I didn't have much to work at it, as the mix was quite fine allready. But still there was some stuff to tweak and improve. I think the whole thing sounds more powerfull and clear now. I didn't change the song structure much, because everything was fine as it was. 

I am closing this post with a few words I simply have to say, regarding this remix thing alltogether and the restructuring of my albums: I knew that there would be some of you who do not like the new versions very much. That's a natural thing. Not just a few amongst you out there love the rough and unpolished alionsonny sound of the old days and are quite uncomfortable with the new, more structured works of mine. Contrary I shiver when I look at the raw old project data I didn't touch for ages. Indeed I wonder why so many of you like that noise ;) But I am happy about it! But you have to undestand, that I have my own artistical standards and those standards grow day by day. I simply cannot do a bass of death with screaming loud resonance sauce and dull wobbeling music all the time. 

Ok, enough words. Here is Parao Dub, the 2012 Version!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Walking Dub 2012 Mix has been released!

Does Sonny start to remix his own stuff now? Partly right! You are right, that this is a new version of a very old track by me. To be exactly, it is a new version of the secondtrack I published ever under the name alionsonny back then in 2004. Why a new version now? Is Sonny going to remix all his old stuff and no longer producing fresh works? No, no, no, don't panic! The whole thing has a simple and easy understandable reason.

Those of you who went to Amazon, iTunes etc. and searched for my music will have missed the 3 albums "Early Xperiments in Dub", "Excursions in Time & Space" und "This is not really Reggae". Here's why they are missing: I do not have all songs of those albums in a quality my distribution partner Routenoute accepts (above 192 kbps MP3). This has different reasons, for example a harddisk crash back then in 2007 or the fact that at the time I recorded the stuff I was too lazy to encode a proper version.

I do not still have all the raw material or at least a uncompressed WAV file. Ok, I could cheat and simply reencode the 128 kbps MP3s to a higher bitrate, but this would be a fraud and is not my style. Instead of that I will re-record all songs of which I still have the raw material and at the ocasion will give all those songs a complete overhaul. Well to do this is bitterly neccessary at some songs, because the original mix is, to put it nicely, complete crap. The result will be about 2 albums, which will be available at all bigger MP3 stores out there. Good news for all the freeriders: The songs of which I have no raw source material and no WAV file I will give away for free. At the moment this is fact for the old (and gruelsome mixed) classic "Herbman in Space" from the album "Early Xperiments in Dub". I still have the raw material of that song, but I personally find it too stupid to make a new version ;)

Ok, and now the new version of "Walking Dub". I have at least 26 songs to remix ;)

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Creativity strikes hard!

Hi friends! This time there's just good news, because there's a real creative mood going on the kingdom of Alion. Everywhere something is going and not just a bit. If you watched my activities during the past days, you'll have noticed that the recent creative block has vanished and made way for a quite fruitful era.

Yesterday, the 10th track for the album "Sumeria" by my project "Cimelium" has been released and that means, that there are just 3 tracks missing, until I will release that album. And, what a  coincidence, I have about 6 song projects in different states of completion, which fit on the album beautifully. So it is more than just possible, that the album will be released prior to my birthday (July 19th). And once the concept album "Mesopotamia" is released, I have two more album ideas for "Cimelium". Yeah, the beat goes on and on...

A new sideproject, a new facette of my musical schizophrenia, is also in a state one can call it a concept. Because my musical origins are in the metal and punk genres of music, it was a wish from the heart all the time to do such music too again, besides all the other musical styles i cover. The concept for my new project is titled "Greifenberg" and under that name I will release Folkmetal, Viking Metal, Blackmetal etc. And because the whole concept is not just a bit about Dragons, Knights, Sword and Magic, this project is also a great new home for the successors of the "Alion - The Original Soundtrack" album.

You will be surprised at all, which new facettes of my creativity I will unveil to you soon. For example I will put more focus on guitar and vocals in the future. I expect that, aside from the alionsonny project (Reggae Dub), there will be 10 to 15 projects for particular musical styles in the end. Some of those projects are more or less alive allready:
Scheduled for the future are the following projects so far:
Greifenberg -> Folkmetal, Viking Metal, Blackmetal, orchestral stuff
WOLTHER -> Singer Songwriter and Progressive Rock

And what about AlionLive? AlionLive Madeira? YEAH! This will go on too! Currently I am cutting the longest part so far, which is about a day at the botanical gardes of Funchal. This part will consist of twoo separate parts. No this time not because of upload issues, but because when we were getting back from the botanical gardes, we took the bus and I was able to sit in the front of the bus and could film the whole busride from Funchal botanical gardens to Funchal center from nearly a drivers perspective. And because riding a bus at Madeira is allways an adventure, I make the busride a video part on it's own to not let it drown in all the flowers & stuff at the botanical gardens.

This will be part 10a and 10b of AlionLive Madeira then. And so you know what awaits you still, here's a little outlook on the comming parts of the series. These are the parts comming up next:
Part 11 - Hiking on our own to the wild heartland of Madeira
Part 12 - The day after hiking and the return.
Part 13 - Another day at the beach and more
Part 14 - Departure -> extremely short.

Maybe I will do a part 15 for an aftermath with tips & tricks, do's and dont's. This could be very useful for your own planning of a trip to Madeira. Please let me know if you would like me to do this.

Well and after this is done, other stuff from AlionLive is to be done. I have loads of ideas. Well, and that's the report so far from here. I'm at work for you again!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

AlionLive Madeira - Teil/Part 9 - Let's got to the Beach!

Once again I did it and composed the ninth part of my travelogue about my trip to Madeira. This time we go to the beach for some swimming. Afterwards we visit a nice fish restaurant and to end the day, we visit a real cozy restaurant with livemusic to have some cocktails. This part is not very long, but part 120 will be much longer.

Friday, June 15, 2012

News from the Willma Poppen Project!

Yes, it was quiet for quite a time regarding that project. Well, in April we released a new song, but somehow it did'nt get further somehow. I think this is, because it is hard to keep a group of hardcore individualists at a project, who have all their own projects on their agenda which are complex enough to fill 3 human lives each. But there's real great news: The whole original Willma Poppen team, whose member names stay secret with the exception of mine, gathered to produce a new song. That song with the nice title "Mrs. Poppen's Funny Mushroom Omelette" is now available for your listening pleasure at the Willma Poppen Blog and the Willma Poppen Homepage. HAVE FUN!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

alionsonny, now also on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify!

Some of you folks told me, that buying my music is too complicated. Directly from me this was the case at all, but also via the (awfull slow) Routenote Shop you told me it is too complicated. And escpecially Europeans told me that at RouteNote "I have to pay in Dollars". Well...

But now, there's no excuse for you all, because on iTunes, you can buy the albums "Alion - The Original Soundtrack", "XperiMental Reggae WorX" and "Electronic Spacerock "international in the currency of your country. The album "Reggae?" is not yet at iTunes. I have to ask why. Additionally you can get all four albums on Amazon and on Spotify. There's no music of mine available yet on eMusic, but maybe my distribution partner did not get this done up to now.

So, let's go! There is really no reason left, why it should be impossible or inconvinient to buy one or the other of my albums!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

AlionLive Madeira - Part 8 - Santa Maria de Colombo is online!

Yeah, it is quite a time, since I uploaded part 7. Some personal problems simply kept me from doings stuff, but now I am back again with full force. Well, and then there was another thing which made me intentionally not upload that video earlier. Some time ago my internet provider offered me a VDSL 50 line for the same price as my old ADSL 3000 line. I instantly said yes, because, especially when uploading videos, connection speed matters. And how annoying it was to be forced to cut longer videos into portions of 15 minutes length, so I got part Xa to Xb. This was, because a 15 minutes video usually took 5 hours (!!!) to upload. Ok, recently I got it down to 3-4 hours with a more efficient compression, but that was still too much. With my new connection, I get a video, which formerly took 5 hours to upload, uploaded in 11 minutes (!!!). And this is why I got the new part, part 8, with it's 50 minutes playtime, uploaded in 33 Minutes. That's just great!

Ok, part 8 is about the trip on the replica of the ship Santa Maria on which Columbus sailed toAmerica and which I announce in the last 2 parts. The background music is from my orchestral soundtrack album "Alion - The Original Soundtrack", about which you can read in this older blog post. The album is, like 3 other albums of mine, available for sale on my Routenote shop and soon on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rdio, Spotify and many other sites. And now, without futher words, 50 minutes of AlionLive Madeira in one piece. get something to drink and eat, because this will be a looong ride ;)

Monday, May 21, 2012

Finally! You can now buy my music online!

While I am still working at my own shop, I found another way to distribute my music. That way is called Routenote. Routenote distributes my music (soon) via Amazon MP3, iTunes and emusic and their own distribution site Routenote Direct. And there you can allready buy the following albums:

XperiMental Reggae WorX (Remastered 2004)
Reggae? (2009)
Alion - The Original Soundtrack (2010)

Soo you will be also able to buy the album "Electronic Spacerock" (2010) there. The distribution via the MP3 portals mentioned above will take some time. I will inform you as soon as possible when this happens. Unfortunately I cannot distribute my other 3 albums "Early Xperiments in Dub", "This is not really Reggae" and "Excursions in Time & Space" with Routenote, because Routenote only accepts MP3s with a minimum quality of 192kbps and I don't have all songs of those albums in that quality and am, for various reasons, not able to re-render the tracks in the required quality. You can still order those albums directly from me. Just drop me a mail and we will find a way.

Now I am quite happy to have found that way of distribution and am waiting that you make me a rich man ;) And to do this, the best you can do is to visit my shop at Routenote by CLICKING HERE. Thanks for each purchase! It helps me to further produce music with full force.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

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.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

AlionLive Madeira Part 7 is online!

It probably took a bit of time and I don't want to explain the many reasons in detail. Put it this way: Some are screaming "Where is the alionmind shop?". the others, "Where is the new music of project XY?", and still others, "When you go on with AlionLive Madeira?" and so on, and so on... Friends! I can not and will not tear myself apart and I have really enough other stuff to do. So much for that;)
Now for the seventh part of AlionLive Madeira: This part is the first part, which is over 15 minutes long and in one piece. The whole could be divided into two parts, but with slightly more than 18 minutes it really made no sense. On this seventh day we actually had a cruise planned on a replica of the sailing ship Santa Maria and bought the tickets allready, but when we arrived at the dock, we learned that not enough passengers had gathered, so that the trip would not pay for the ship owners and so we had to do the trip on the next day. Not really a bad thing. So we have again used the day to relax and explore the center of Funchal, a little more, visited a nice park, saw cucumbers  on trees;), and had a good time with a good wine and good food. This is the video that has been filmed on that day:

Monday, April 23, 2012

News from Willma Poppen!

Yes, it has really happened. Some people thought this project was dead, others simply knew, that it is immortal. We are talking about Willma poppen a project of alionsonny and some friends who prefer to stay anonymous for good reasons. And it is those friends who are the reason why releases by this, by the way quite popular, project are quite rare. Those friends are not willing or unable to invest more of their most valued time into the project. But now it has happened once more: An elaborate (no, Sven, it is not ejaculate!) of the relentless force of consequently sweet Pop-Techno has come to the dull light of the world. And maybe, really maybe, the Willma poppen Project will also release an album, before the folks it consists of, who are without exception old farts who have a very unhealthy lifestyle, cease to exist. Well and here without any more words, the new song by Willma Poppen which is titled "Popp-Eye"

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

alionsonny - Ultimate Collection 2012

For the upcomming opening of the alionmind records Webshop, I am proud to announce a very special release: The alionsonny - Ultimate Collection 2012. What is that? It is a DVD containing the seven alionsonny music albums released so far at a special price. And that's not all: You will fin not only all covergraphics in high resolution on this DVD, but also 69 of the songs in uncompressed wave audio format. Most of the songs are in pristine 320 kbps MP3 quality. Here's in detail what you get if you purchase that DVD:

4,61 GB of music
A total of 91 Songs
69 songs in uncompressed wave audio format
71 songs in pristine 320 kbps MP3 quality
2 Songs in 192 kbps MP3
11 Songs in 128 kbps MP3
3 full sets of Covergraphics in high resolution
4 frontcovergraphis in 800 x 800 pixels resolution

And what's the price? 50 Euros or US-Dollar. Expensive? I don't think so. Usually an alionsonny musicalbum is 10 Euros/US-Dollar. You get 7 albums for the price of 5 here, plus wave audio versions of most of the songs, which you do not get usually. I think that's a bargain. As I said, the alionmind records Webshop will be online soon and of cause you will be able to buy the Ultimate Collection 2012 there too. If you don't want to wait, you can also right now pay the 50 Euros/US-Dollar to my payPal account (Mailaddress: alionsonny@alionsonny.com) or you can send a bank transfer to my bank account:

Juergen Wolther
Banking Institure: Hamburger Sparkasse
BIC: HASPDEHHXXX
IBAN: DE84200505501295408106

Best is if you write an email to me after sending the money, so I am able to know who you are and of cause I need your name and postal address to be able to send the DVD to you. By the way: You do NOT get a pressed DVD, but a self burned DVD-R. This is because it would be not suitable for such the small number of copies I expect to sell. Additionally there is some issues regarding to the GEMA which keep me from offering pressed DVDs. The covergraphics are not printed allready. You get them for printing them yourself on the DVD. I added the covergraphics below this posting.

So if you want the ultimate alionsonny music collection, oder now! If you still have questions, ask them in the comments of this blog, or send me an email.



Friday, March 23, 2012

AlionLive Madeira - Part 6 is online! (UPDATE: Complete!!!)

Yeah, today a lot of stuff is going on, here at the lions den. Just after I presented my latest music project TUBENWURST, part 6 A of AlionLive Madeira is online. Yeah, you got that right: Part 6 is again in fact 2 parts: Part 6-A and part 6-B, just like part 4. What is part 6 about? Surprise: A hike! This time to Monte, the highest point in Funchal. And the hike is also the longest so far. Have fun, and don't forget to ask for some TUBENWURST at your local supermarket. This video also features the first song of the TUBENWURST project!

Here's part 6-A:

and here's part 6-B:

Musically schizophrenia is FUN!

I warned you! Because of the perpetual moaning and groaning about my musical style escapades, I was forced to think about a solution and now I got it nailed. Huh? Don't worry: You will understand it soon enough .. or maybe not ;) Those who thought that Cimelium was already the end of the story about what could be achieved, and that from now on nothing particularly new would happen, will now be shocked: Here is TUBENWURST! Let me translate this to English: It means something like saussage out of a tube, like toothpaste. Tasty and not always agreeable, but Nutritious! Decades of work at the Alion Space Labs have created a marvel of musical spacefood, which sets new standards. A good mix of influences of electronic music from the recent decades, coupled with the confused mind of the Creator of TUBENWURST give a flavor of electronic sound art, which is appreciated only by true gourmets. YOU belong to? Just try it. The handy sample pack of TUBENWURST, can be enjoyed just at home, traveling, doing sports and games, or maybe at work. It provides energy, but also mental confusion in a matter of seconds.
WHAT IS THAT SHIT? Quite simple, my dear friends: I am talking about my latest music project. As I already mentioned several times, I am ,due to the fact that my sheer repertoire of various styles of music not only confuses people, but also makes some people angry, forced to split my artistic identity alionsonny into many. So far there are Willma Poppen known for merciless candy-pop-techno, Cimelium for the calm & spacy sounds and of cause still alionsonny for everything that is reggaelike. But what about the kind of music, for example, you find on the very popular album "Electronic Space Rock"? The demand for an album with music of this kind is certainly not just small and it is fun to me to mix influences from rock and pop music of the last 4-5 decades, with a dash of 80's feel and a good shot of crazyness and let the result do it's devastating job to the the synapses of my defenseless audience. Yesterday, I consumed 3 jugs of ultra strong coffee and then flew with my loved one through the warm spring air while enjoying some beers. I was looking for a music project title, under which I could publish my latest musical work. So we did what is called brainstorming and had probably hundreds or even thousands of fully stupid ideas, until we came up with one that was so profoundly stupid that we had to just love it: TUBENWURST!
Fine! Since you now know the fascinating history ... HAAAAALT! What did Sonny just say? New musical work? Yes, my dears: There is something new and it has what it takes. It is a work that is truly worthy of being the first song of the project TUBENWURST. There's an interesting story behind this: Imagine a raw electronic beat and Sonny sitting in front of his studio computer, heavily tired, because he gets up very early in the morning in solidarity with his girlfriend, who has to get up very early to work. And there he is now and has promised his audience to create a new song for each part of AlionLive Madeira. The raw beat on the screen ... thoughts and creativity do not seem to want to flow at all ... IDEA! A STRONG COFFEE! Said and done: Sonny made a coffee that was so strong that others would instantly get a heartattack from just a looking at it and drank it. And voila: The creativity machine started to work. The beat became a verse, arpeggios were building upon it, effects were softly placed like silk sheets over it... Crap! Not enough energy! One more coffee! Said and done: Another energy drink suitable for for elephants! Now the notes flew just like that of the vibrating skull into the computer. Yikes, almost finished! ANOTHER COFFEE? ALWAYS! Well, after this third pot of nuclear coffee I felt as if I was going to explode soon ... But suddenly the song was finished. And it also had a title allready, namely "3 Kannen Kaffee" (Three Pots Of Coffee). My girlfriend thinks it is good title, because that's how it sounds. I recommend not trying to dance to it, because cardiologists always look forward to new customers ;) And here, after all the words .. FINALLY! The project TUBENWURST, and it's first song "3 Kannen Kaffee"! A web site for the project is also coming soon!

3 Kannen Kaffee by TUBENWURST

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Alion Live Madeira Part 5 is here!

Because of other things I had to do it took some time, but here is AlionLive Madeira Part 5. It is, with it's playtime of 7:51 minutes, most probably the shortest part of the whole series. The reason is, that after three days spent with extensive hiking, we were quite exhausted and therefore we needed a day of rest. We spent that day in Funchal downtown. It is difficult to rest if you allways use a videocamera and becuse of this not much material has been filmed. But no worries: The sixth part, in which we are hiking again, is allmost ready and it will be much longer. The only thing missing is a fitting new song. I promised you to do, whenever possible, a new somg for each part. I didn't do that for the fifth part, because it is such a short part, and there would not be much space for a new song. Instead of it, I used the two most popular songs of my project Willma Poppen. And here is, without any further delay, the fifth part of AlionLive Madeira: