Oops! I simply forgot to tell you something! New song "Farm Dub" is here and more!

I know: It went "a bit quiet" around the alionsonny project since the release of the "Continuity" album. And that was now a heavy understatement. Almost three months have passed since here since something new has been reported here... and then I simply forget to write an update here if something happens. I'm sorry for that, but as you can read in the monthly news on the alionmind records blog soon, I was anything but idle.

And while we are on the topic: Quite a few probably have not noticed that news concerning the other projects are no longer mentioned in this blog. I handle that very strict recently. This means, that there will be no longer news reported regarding the projects "Willma Poppen", "Cimelium" and new "AlionLive" videos on Youtube. So if you have thought these projects would be dead by now: No, they are very much alive and have made great progress. It is just, that news regarding to these project are posted only in the dedicated blogs, and of cause also on Twitter and Facebook since quite a time. I want to use the alionsonny blog solely for news concerning this project. And exactly this is why this blog does not get as much updates as back in the days. If you do not yet know the blogs of the other projects, here they are:

Willma Poppen Blog
Cimelium Blog
AlionLive Blog

And if you want to monthly (well , more or less ;) ) read my entire activities in the summary, it is recommended that you check the alionmind records blog.

Ok, and what he told of a new alionsonny song? Yes, actually the first track after the release of the "Continuity" album has been completed as a pre-release version. It is a work in the good old traditional way, ie one that will drive the purists crazy ;) . In fact, it is so traditional that one feels transported back to the early years of the alionsonny project. Of course, it is again not really Reggae. There is so much dubbing going on, that many will get vertigo. Also, I once again implemented a funny collection of rhythm changes. Overall it is, so to say, "colorful". After I - believe or not - have followed a more serious approach with the last tracks, I thought it would be time again for a little sillyness ;). Yeah, and there's are actually not more to say about it. Listen to it and judge for yourself. As with everything I upload to SoundCloud, this is a so-called pre-release version, ie a version that is good for now, but not really finished. The final version is created when the next alionsonny album is to be released... but that is still very far away. But for now, here is "Farm Dub". Have fun!

"Continuity" is now available on iTunes and Spotify!

Yeah, who would have thought this? This went quite fast. Big thanks to the Routenote team, because they managed it to set a new "speed record" for making an album available. For "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" and "Mesopotamia" it took a little more than two weeks back then. Now it took just 11 days! That's the way I like it (aha aha) :). I have just checked Amazon. There, the album is not yet to be found, but they always need much longer. I am absolutely ok with that, because from every download sold on iTunes I get a bigger share than from Amazon. Additionally, Amazon squanderes, at least the albums by independent musicians, in my opinion, at ridiculously low prices. Also on Emusic, the album is not yet to be found, but who really uses Emusic? If I remember it right, not a single download of my works has been sold there since June 2012. It seems, that this platform is not very popular. I can not say anything about the availability on the streaming platforms Rdio and Deezer, because they do not offer free access and the catalog can be viewed only by paying customers. I will not pay a single cent, just to see if my album is available there. If you, dear reader, are a customer of these platforms, it would be nice if you could have a look and see if the album is available there and let me know about it. Thanks in advance.

So, I have yet again written a lot. I did not actually expect that ;) So, here are the links, so you can shop comfortably. Make me rich! ;) :)

"Continuity" on iTunes
"Continuity" on Spotify

Album release! "Continuity" is here!

Yes, it has happened: Today, the album for which you have waited so long has been finally released. However, again I have to disappoint you a bit: Currently, it is only available in my Routenote Direct shop. Do not let the awful design of the shop and the fact, that, due to the lack of a playlist, you cannot can not pre-listen the songs, scare you away . Something is not working with the shop currently and the Routenote guys are most probably already on the job to fix it. I have already "complained" about it ;). And don't be puzzled about the fact, that the album is on position 3 of the album list. So if it is not visible on your superduper Smartphone -> please scroll down a little. It is definitely there. I also do not know why this is. You can also click here . This takes you directly to the album page. You can pay conveniently via Paypal or credit card. If you can wait, the album will soon be available on iTunes , Amazon, and many other well known shops. How long will that take? On average, 4 to 6 weeks, but for the album releases in fall of 2012 it took only 2 weeks for iTunes. Yes, so much time has passed already since "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" and "Mesopotamia".

Oh yes: And of course you can, as always, order the album directly from me for 10 Euros. Simply transfer the money via Paypal to alionsonny@alionsonny.com and to be sure, also send an email to the same address. Sending this mail is also a good idea, because otherwise I can not send you the download link. But if you want to transfer me money and get no album, you may also omit the part of sending the mail ;).

So, now that was a long wait full of ups and downs. I have good reasons to hope, that it will not again take three years until the next alionsonny album will be released. Of course, the work at the other projects will ensure that I cannot release another alionsonny album in just a few months, but I have learned some new strategies. Yeah, next is the "Willma Poppen" album "Willma im Wunderland". And next after this is Cimelium's "Madeira" album. But I also have some tracks for the alionsonny project almost done. How will I the next album be titled? Make some suggestions ;).

EDIT: To make up for the missing Routenote playlist, I embed the Soundcloud playlist here. But NOTE: This is NOT the final product. All tracks in this playlist are (some improved) pre-release versions of the tracks and most of them do not match the quality of the album. And please note another thing: On Soundcloud (at least for the free accounts) the audio is compressed to death. So this is just for a slight pre-listening. You have been warned ;)

"Brainforest Chapter III" - The last song for the album "Continuity" is here!

It is done! After 3 years, we finally have the, traditionally, 13 alionsonny tracks for a new album. If you now think, the album would be available tomorrow on iTunes & Co., I have to disappoint you. Now comes still a lot of work for me, because by just finishing the songs, only the biggest part of the work is done. What happens next? First I have to get the songs in an order (playlist) of course, so that everything fits together. Then there is the fact that the song versions you can listen to on Soundcloud are just pre-release versions and not really finished. This means that the songs were ok for me at the time they were completed. But as time passes, I hear but more or less minor "imperfections" in them, or listeners tell me about the one or the other thing that sounds not alright. The oldest songs, destined for the "Continuity" album, were completed 3 years ago. You can certainly imagine that one discovers many of such opportunities for improvement during 3 years. In addition, you learn a lot during 3 years and the own standards rise according to that. So I will take each of the 13 items completely under the microscope again and optimize.

Brainforest Chapter III
... is the third part of a song series which was started in 2004 with the first part which can be found on the first alionsonny album "XperiMental Reggae WorX". The series was continued with part 2, which was released on the, now downloadable for free, album "Excursions in Time & Space". When I worked at the first part, it was already clear to me, that this would become a series of songs. For an album, which claims to be a part of a continuity in it's title, a continuation of Brainforest is just a logical step. Again everything sounds "latin american"-ish and also the somewhat mystical and gloomy jungle feeling is back again. The new part, however, is far more complex than its predecessors. There are also no sample loops used it and, the reggae purists will stone me for this statement: There's far more Reggae in "Brainforest Chapter III". But what do I tell all the time? Hear it for yourself:

...and another free album: "The Alion Archives"!

I know that soon the "Don't give everything away for free"-folks will show up and tell me, that I am too generous ;). But in my opinion the recordings in this package are not suitable for a commercial release. And before the stuff rotts on the hard drive, while not just a few people ask where you can download the old stuff, I prefer to give it away for free. It may be of interest for the "make money from everything"-folks to know, that there were listeners who, when I released the other two free albums, advised me not to do it, as the quality of the old crackers would be bad advertising. You see, so everyone has their own opinion on what is sellable and what is not.

So, after I already made "Excursions in Time & Space" a free album and put the commercial (in my opinion) not usable tracks of the (no longer available) albums "This is not really Reggae" and "Early Experiments in Dub" on the free album "Free", I now compiled another 13 old tracks for another free album, titled "The Alion Archives". And this time, you get some, as some would say, legendary pieces of alionsonny history. This blog is really long because I want to tell you a little something about each featured song. After the big break with my "everything free, donate what you want"-strategy in 2009 and the decline of ReggaeDubwise.com some things disappeared completely from the Web, not just a few people would be happy to get their hands on again. Well, clever ones, who downloaded the whole stuff when it was still online. And so requests for certain songs didn't stop coming in. And every time I asked myself, how I would get this sorted. For a few songs the decision was simple: I did not have the original sources and the existing MP3 file was encoded in less than 192 kbps, which made a commercial release on the usual sales portals impossible. In other cases  certain plugins for my audio software did no longer work, resulting in that a revamp would have been very complicated. The rest of the songs, from my point of view, would have required a major revamp, which I do not think is advisable because of costs and benefits. And that is good for you because now you get, just before the release of the new commercial album "Continuity", a little gift again. Following, I would like to tell you more or less about each song :

01. Fiesta (first published March 18. 2006 )
This is my first and only version of the famous "Lalabella"- or "Ghetto People" riddim . This Riddim is my favorite riddim, right after the "Ali Baba" riddim. The version on this album was actually scheduled for one of the infamous "Dubwars" on Versionist.com. However, this did never happen due to the decline of this community. Really a pitty. I would certainly have won again ;).

02. Midnight Summer Dream Dub (first published January 20. 2006)
This is a reggae cover version of my favorite song of the rock band "The Stranglers". It was produced during just one night. The idea was actually to transform ANY song by ANY rock band into a dub reggae version. And since I had the melody of "Midnight Summer Dream" in my head since a New Year's party anyway still, it was clear which song it would be.

03. Language of My Reality feat. Colin Mutchler (first published March 18. 2006 )
Actually, I was just looking for drum samples ... yes , at that time my collection of free samples was not really large. And so one day I was once again on the hunt. An online friend recommended me CCMixter. Why that? Because after some browsing , I noticed that I was at the completely wrong place for collecting drum samples. I was looking for one-shot drum samples, but here I found mostly more or less complete tracks and acapellas for remixing. This was a community for remixers. But while I was there, I looked at what I could find. From the beginning I found the Acapellas very interesting. The possibilities to do voice recordings inside my flat were even more unsuitable than today and I found it a good idea to use something like vocals, at least a rap as an element of a new song. And so I stumbled across the Acapellas by Colin Mutchler, which were superb in both, recording quality and the very appealing topics. After a first contact I have also noted that Colin is a really nice person. Once more a "Versionist.com Dubwar" was on it's way, and the chosen riddim was the Skylarking Riddim. So I created a suitable version of that riddim and Colin's Acapella fit  excellent. I don't know whether the aforementioned "Dubwar" ever took place, and if so, what position the song reached... well, who cares? ;).

04. Ali Baba's Psychedelic Breakfast (first published: December 31. 2005 )
A long, long time ago on a long gone website (Versionist.com) with a unique community consisting of more or less crazy Reggae musicians, dubbers and reggae lovers, there was a beautiful tradition: Since the assembled musicians had a certain tendency to verbally go for eachothers throat the ritual of the so-called "Dubwars" came to life. A well-known Riddim was chosen and until a set date all participants could produce versions of  that riddim and showcase it on Versionist.com. Then the winner was determined in a democratic vote. At my suggestion my favorite riddim, the Ali Baba Riddim, was selected for the Dubwar at the end of 2005. And it would have been a shame for me if my version would not have won. And I won, despite the fact that I could produce the version on New Years Eve 2005 just shortly before the deadline, due to a severe flu.

05. Alion Smoke Signal (first published:  July 14. 2006)
There is actually no particular story behind this. I found the original "Baffling Smoke Signal" by Lee Scratch Perry always funny and I had the idea to craft an instrumental cover version of it for quite a long time already . The choice of ​​an accordion as main instrument had to do with my, at the time, very strong tendency to anger the reggae purists. ;) And so it was done .

06. Heart Attack (first published: July 09.2006 )
As for the 5th title there is only to say that I always liked the original "My heart is gone" by John Holt and because of this wanted to release an instrumental version. Said and done ...

07. Dinner Time for the Cats (first published: May 31. 2007)
Mid 2007, the open verbal war between me and those who wanted "their reggae" free from any alien influence was at the absolute peak. This was due also to the fact of the decay of the Versionist.com community, the process of the creation of the alternative plattform ReggaeDubwise.com and my choice of side. This created some well-deserved hostilities against me. Skilled by the previous Dubwars, and learning the versioning of classic riddims, I directly strove for provocation with the release of "Dinner Time for the Cats". Daring to version the classic Sleng Teng riddim in my own (perceived by the purists as blasphemy) style was actually reason enough for an outrage. However, it was a much greater provocation to do that version using the melody of a well-known children's song. The response was accordingly: FYAH ! ;)

08. Babylon DC feat. Ital Roots Players (first published: May 16. 2006)
The Ital Roots Players and me, during times of Versionist.com and ReggaeDubwise.com, were connected via a kind of "love-hate" relationship. At least the two Ital Roots Players, as well as I did, enjoyed excessive flame wars in the forums. How surprising it must have been for the "bystanders", who always perceived our flame wars as some kind of a total war, that I accepted the offer of the Ital Roots Players to use their Acapella "Babylon DC" in a song. Countless versions using this Acapella were published back then. However, mine was most likely the one which most surprised the audience.

09. Everyday Choices feat. Colin Mutchler (first published: May 15. 2006)
After the unexpected success of "Language of My Reality ", it was no question that I would produce another song with an acapella by Colin. This time I decided to use a genuine own riddim creation instead of a version of a classic riddim.

10. A Banquet At Elvenwood Castle (first published : 18.08.2005 )
Some Versionists really loved my first songs in which I joined a "Dungeons & Dragons" theme with reggae-ish music very much, such as "The Knights of Dubwood Castle" from the album "Xperimental Reggae WorX". The idea behind this, very early, production was to make it more suitable for a movie soundtrack. Whether this was successful, everyone should judge for him/herself ;) .

11. On the Rocks feat. Scott Durfinger (first published : March 11. 2005)
At the height of my experimental phase I encountered a young rock guitarist who presented quite high quality recordings of his art in the forum of SoundClick (not to be confused with SoundCloud ...did not even exist back then). I asked him, if I could use one of his solo recordings for remixing just for fun. He agreed and now I could try to mix rock guitar with reggae. If I succeeded doing this? Well ... judge for yourself

12. Astral Travel (first published:  July 11. 2010)
There is not much to say about this: I was in search for public domain video material on Archive.org and stumbled across a spoken meditation instruction. I had just finished an instrumental track... and something was missing. A little bit of work and this is the result.

13. Everyday Choices feat. Colin Mutchler - Alternate Version (Previously unreleased)
This is an alternative version of "Everyday Choices". I can not say anything specific about the origin. The thing was somehow always somewhere on the hard drive and was always ignored until a girlfriend found it and said that this version is better than the other one. Hmm, I do not even think that this is a final version. But, hey, it's free ;).

Ok, I hope I did not forget anything. And finally: You can download the album from my website, FOLLOWING THIS LINK. There simply click on "FREE DOWNLOAD". The album is available in RAR format. Actually, everyone should know how to unzip something, for example using the free software 7-Zip. ENJOY!

The sound of the islands: "Ganja in the Jar"!

... and you thought I was joking when I announced on Facebook that I would marry the good old Sleng Teng riddim with THE popular song of Irish folk, "Whiskey in the Jar". Well, those of you who hear alionsonny not just since yesterday, will actually recall some Irish folk / Reggae experiments I did in the past. To the newer listeners, they are probably unknown because none of the tracks is on any album currently available . This will change very soon, as I plan to release another free album with ancient song releases.

Style
But back to "Ganja in the Jar" . When I additionally also announced that this piece of music would include the Christian song "Lord of the Dance" as a "secondary melody", some of the folks thought, this would not be possible. Well, I have truly accomplished already by far more complicated style blends. Both "Whiskey in the Jar", and "Lord of the Dance" are not composed in any exotic time signatures. There are truly difficult candidates in the (Irish) folk music for Reggae interpretations. The difficulty in Reggae interpretations of Irish folk music is, that Reggae is played in 4/4-time. Irish folk often uses quite "exotic" signatures . The only flavor of Irish folk songs which are in 4/4-time I know of are Reels. Jigs, for example, are in 6/8, Slides in 12/8. Besides there are plenty of other time signatures such as 3/4 and extremly funny ones like the Slip Jig in 9/8. In the end it is of course all just mathematics. With a little work one can "convert" any signature to a 4/4. However, it is not done with just pure mathematics. Both, Irish Folk and Reggae is very emotional music. A simple mathematical transformation would be like Kraftwerk performing the "Moldau" by Smetana... well... that would be interesting ;). Another not to be underestimated, factor in making Reggae versions of Irish folk tunes is the emphasized offbeat in Reggae. A melody, which fits well to a 4/4 Rock song, can sound extremely different on a offbeat emphasized Reggae rythm. Finally I would say that a healthy mix of mathematics and feeling always leads to the goal.

History
As mentioned, I have already "married" Irish Folk to Reggae a couple of times in the past. I even messed before with the well-known Sleng Teng riddim. In 2007 I published "Dinner Time for the Cats", a Sleng Teng riddim version with the melody of the famous nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice". Somehow many well-known tunes fit with he Sleng Teng Riddim... well, at least if you mangle it properly. On that cold, gray September morning, I had not really planned to produce music . The plan was actually working on the long overdue videos. And so I announced it on Facebook: Dear people ! No music today. Now I'm working at the videos. I do not remember exactly how I got the idea to do a new version of Sleng Teng, but somehow I was suddenly in the middle of the production of a new track. After some time I had a standard Sleng Teng, but with more "punch" and some (still) small modifications. As so often, I sat down at the keyboard and just improvised along. I have no idea how exactly the melody of "Whiskey in the Jar" sneaked into my mind. I have not heard that song in ages, but it fit quite well. As I noted before, there were some who, after I announced on Facebook, that I would make a Sleng Teng version of "Whiskey in the Jar", thought that now I would finally become permanently insane. They had no idea, what was about to come ;). After "Whiskey in the Jar" fit perfectly, I improvised a bit further and found that the old melody of "Lord of the Dance" also, maybe even better, worked with my version of the riddim. At least one Facebook friend stated that this would NEVER fit . "Well, Sonny, you've already done a lot of crazy stuff, but a Reggae version of 'Whiskey in the Jar' ... and then also a Christian hymn as a second melody? That doesn't work!". Doesn't work? Works! ...as you can hear... ;). Do I need to explain the song title ?

Questionable
In the case of this song, I am a lot more sure that the final album version will sound a lot different than the, now available pre-release version, than for any other song destined for the "Continuity" album. Meanwhile, I have heard some details, I would like to change somehow. At the beginning of the song, the harmonica resonates far too long. I'm not sure if the bass and snare drum should sound that much "in the face" or rather a bit softer. On one side the track has a hell of a punch, but somehow it seems a bit too much for my taste. Maybe I will make two versions: The "In the face version" and the "laid back version". We will see...

Almost there
This is now track 12 of 13 for the album "Continuity". Almost there! And the long announced track number 13, "Brain Forest - Chapter III" is almost finished. This means that I will soon start  transforming all 13 tracks into the final album versions. In this step, I will also ensure that the whole album sounds coherent in itself. This will take some time, but I guess that it can be done in one to two weeks.

Ok, that was a lot of text again . But if I write less, some complain I could tell some more . So now: MUSIC !

New song " Pirates of Madeira"!

Oh, that's complicated to explain ... or not? Well, let's sinply get started:  I guess quite a few of you will think " Oh no, not the island again", when they see the term "Madeira" in the song title, or maybe "will that EVER end?". "No!" is the correct answer to the latter question. However, it doesn't matter very much, how a song is titled. What matters is the sound.

And especially our beloved "genre fascists" will once more break out in weeping , gnash their teeth or will break out in open contempt for my person. I already know that from absolutely sufficient experience. Should I do it? Should I say the song "Pirates of Madeira" has just a minimal similarity or even IS some kind of REGGAE? Should I? No, I do not want to be responsible for deaths. And precisely for this reason, you, dear reader, dear listener, should  follow my example and refrain from a more thorough discussion of the subject of genre localization of this musical piece, if possible . Since "there is no blessing in this" , as a very wise old lady often used to say . And do not think you would escape the judgment of the genre fascists if you simply choose a different genre to locate this musical piece. Well, for example the techno fans (Goa / Trance) will not threaten you with "Fire & Brimstone" because of the genre blasphemy, but you will not make yourself popular either.

With this kind of a piece of music it is like with so many typical foods of different regions : Do not ask what's in it as long as it tastes ;). The song has, during it's extremely long development from a simple loop to the now available prerelease version, undergone some rather turbulent conversions . If you, like a friend of mine , are of the opinion, that this song would have suited the Willma Poppen project more than the alionsonny project, then I can tell you, for the general amusement, that the song was at least once temporarily destined for each of my 3 major projects. Fact is: The song started as a typical alionsonny song idea. One of those "bouncy, funny reggae-ish" thingies, which make the Reggae purists freak out. Then the song transformed so much into the direction of pop techno, that I had to call it a 100% Willma Poppen Project track. In between, albeit in questionable mental constitution on my part, the song was once also a candidate for Cimeliums "Madeira" album.

That the song then still developed to what it is today, is due to the fact, that I once again enjoyed a delicious Madeira wine 3-4 nights ago. And while doing that, I watched the video of the day on the Santa Maria de Colombo in 2011, aswell as the video from 2012. I constantly had this accordion melody and the next day it was clear to me that:

1. I would like to dedicate a song to the Santa Maria de Colombo and the crew.
2. why not this one?

Said and done ! And so I worked the last 3 days almost non-stop to get done what you can listen to now . By the way, is the track 11 of 13 for the new alionsonny album "Continuity". The next song is already pretty much ready for pre release. Especially my "old time fans" will love to read what it will be: Chapter 3 of the the popular "BrainForest" series! Continuity ;)

And now have fun with the Pirates of Madeira!

New song "The Storm" available!

Exactly, the song was actually released already 2 days ago, but I had to do something else meanwhile and no time to write the blog. Yes, that happens too. On the topic: Yes, for the second time within a week a new track for the new alionsonny album was completed. No one would have expected this, after the project has paused for quite a long time, in favor of Willma and Cimelium. Thus we have 10 of the 13 tracks for the album now and this puts the release date of the album into a timespan one can call "foreseeable future". Although I do not suppose that the album will be released before my birthday on July 19th, but at least I can say with certainty that it will be relesed still in 2013.

The current song, titled "The Storm" is, is as "Flight of the Butterfly" was, on the one hand a flashback to the early days of the alionsonny project, on the other hand a big step forward. The sound might remind many of you of the time around 2007, when songs such as "Photosynthesis", "Revolution Now" or "Individuality" shaped the alionsonny sound significantly. I currently enjoy working with old concepts in new "clothing". A few new tricks in conjunction with traditional tastes and favorites can certainly provide a quite nice result. And I think that "The Storm" is a good example. The idea may well come from 2007. It also deals quite rude with the underlying musical genres Reggae and Ska, as it was the case in the days of "This is not really reggae". Parts of the song have rythm patterns fitting the played genre quite well which quickly change to patterns from totally different styles of music. Does this remind any one of the days of Polka- or Waltz-Reggae-Mashups? Well, some things do not change..

Conclusion: "The Storm" is absolutely nothing for Reggae or Ska purists, especially if they understand a mashup of their beloved genres as a sacrilege. Friends of varying experimental musical experiences with a preference for psychotic sound  episodes should be served well.

Finally a new alionsonny Song: Flight of the Butterfly!

Photo: User Beentree Wikipedia

Some thought again, the alionsonny project would be dead and buried, although the release of the last song "A Sunny Day" took place about just 3 months ago. Yes, some of my listeners are still living in those days in which pretty much I everything I created was released as an alionsonny release. And since I do no longer publish information about the releases of the projects Cimelium and Willma Poppen  at this Blog (as announced by the way) since quite a time, some even said I do no longer produce music at all anymore. Updates to the releases of these projects are recently announced in the  Cimelium Blog and the Willma Poppen Blog. The ultimate source for news about all alionmind records releases  will be the, recently not very well served, alionmind records Blog in the future. It is also recommended for Facebook users to "like" the alionsonny, Willma Poppen, Cimelium and alionmind records Facebook pages to immediately get news about the projects.

So much for the long preface. Yes, the alionsonny project is alive and there are already several songs in progress to complete the long-awaited new alionsonny album. The reception of the last  alionsonny release "A Sunny Day" was absolutely stunning. So many listeners wrote me that they like the song, and even more stunned me, that some amongst those people were not really lovers of my music before. Longtime listeners even believed, as a Facebook friend nailed it, that the alionsonny sound "finally grew up".  What a slap in the face must the latest release "Flight of the Butterfly" be for those who thought so? This song once more is a very experimental creation, which certainly allows comparisons with the early early days of the project. Why does he do that? Well, I just was in the mood for a experimenting again. And since I had just completed a rather experimental piece for Willma Poppen shortly before beginning work on "Flight of the Butterfly", I was still in the ultra creative mode, so everything went not just a bit experimental again.

As I said more alionsonny releases and the completion of the new album (still without a name) are planned for the near future. But for now, here is the new song:

The alionsonny project is ALIVE! New Song!

This took some time! The fans of elaborate Dub crazyness had to wait whole 5 months (to the day) for a new release by the alionsonny project. While all my other projects were plentyfully blessed with new releases, the reggae-ish part was completely on halt. This is now changing. ACTUALLY there has been an alionsonny album announced for the turn of the year. In the course of my "2013 - My Year" move it is now time to focus on that task.

The start for this has been made with the release of a new alionsonny track, titled "A Sunny Day". As the name tells, this track was inspired by a sunny day, the first one in Hamburg this year. Like the projects "Willma Poppen" and "Cimelium", the project alionsonny has now also a "roadmap" for a change, which will determine the style of all future releases of the project. At the alionsonny project this change is mainly to focus on the specialities of the typical alionsonny sound. To say it somewhat clear: I dont want to get distracted anmore. I found my sound an now it is time to finetune it. With the new release I think I accomplished that so far.

On one hand "A Sunny Day" is a return to the roots of the project, but also a step into a uncertain future. Many loyal alionsonny listeners bemoaned, that they missed those playfull and sometimes neckbreaking outbursts of Dub in the releases of the past years. "A Sunny Day" answers this with a straight "Here you go! Want more?". On the other hand, the regular alionsonny listener will recognize, that the sound is now much more structured and clean. I can hear the friends of the "old soundmud" scream in pain. Yes, folks who love merciless reverb mud and delay mangled drumloops exist. Well, dear "friends of the mud", that's it. Honestly, when I recorded my first works in 2004/2005 with 30 Euros PC speakers, I released (because those speakers didn't speak BASS) tracks, which make my toenails roll up, if I listen to them today. If one takes a look at the frequency spectrum, one sees the bass frequencies exploding and on the other frequencies is the silence of the lambs. Why do I tell this now? Exactly as I said goodbye to the "monsterbass" in 2007 and even more in 2009, I now say goodbye to the other elements which negatively affected my sound in the past. There were also folks who bemoaned the "monsterbass" when I said goodbye to it. Well, the train goes on.

The style of the alionsonny project is also changing. While I often released tracks and albums in the past like "I don't care what you want! Take this!", I decided - also in the course of the commercialization of the project - to listen more to you, my dear listeners. Actually there is a great deal of feedback comming from my audience, and so I can be pretty sure to know exactly WHAT my audience liked at my past releases. THIS is my roadmap: Excactly what you want. So flood my mailbox and the alionsonny Facebook fanpage with CONSTRUCTIVE comments. Only this way I can produce YOUR music.

A little sidenote/detail. While working at the song, I recognized a pattern in a particular melody when looking at it in the pianoroll (digital music sheet in a sequencer), which looked like DNA. I embed a picture here:

For the curious amongst you: The melody is that synth which sounds like a mix of a female voice and a flute. The "enemies of repetition" will recognize that it repeats the same melody pattern allmost all over the song. This is intended. I didn't want to break the DNA string ;).

Another good news: Since quite a long time no alionsonny music video has been releaased. AlionLive isn't really about music videos ;). Because I like "A Sunny Day" so much, I will soon create a NICE music video for it. And if I say soon, I mean REALLY soon. Ok, and that's really enough text. Here's the music.

...and another free album for you: "FREE"!

It is done: I have checked all songs I released so far for the alionsonny project, if they are suitable for commercial release and out of that a completely new and absolutely free dub music album was born. Yes, if you didn't recognize it by the coverart: It is a pure dub album. On it are tracks from the albums "Early Xperiments in Dub" and "This is not really Reggae". For those who didn't read the blog recently, I summarize what happened: The 3 albums "Early Xperiments in Dub", "Excursions in Time & Space" and "This is not really Reggae" contained many tracks which I had in no suitable audio quality for a commercial release and didn't have the project files anymore. I could have "blown up" those tracks to 320 kbps, but I think that is a fraud. The album "Excursions in Time & Space" was declared a free download a few days ago. Also a few days ago I selected the (from my point of view) best 13 tracks of the albums "Early Xperiments in Dub" und "This is not really Reggae" and released them on a commercial album titled "Dub Antiquities" (soon available in the shops). 13 tracks remained from both albums, ofwhich were only a few suitable for commercial use. So I decided to release those 13 tracks as another free album for you, titled "FREE". Click HERE to download it.

Here's the tracklist:

01 - Herbman in Space
02 - Photosynthesis
03 - Lincoln Memorial - Washington D.C. - August 28, 1963
04 - Alionmind Dub
05 - Submarine Dub
06 - The Scrolls of Alion - Chapter One - Desert Storm
07 - Funky Beast
08 - Angeldream Dub
09 - Progress (feat. MC Dubbel-U-Bush)
10 - The Day I crashed into the Bathtube
11 - Nightdrive
12 - Springtime
13 - Gandalf The White

"Excursions in Time & Space" is a FREE DOWNLOAD NOW!

BOOM! Da bomb has just exploded. After releasing the "Dub Antiquities" album, the mails started to drop in, first slowly then more and more. A big part of the mails were just congratulations and thanks by people who desperately wanted the old tracks during the past 2 years and couldn't find a way to get them. But I allways say "Work causes more work"... and so it was here. Because of the simple fact that "Dub Antiquities" is a selection of the best bits of the alionsonny musical past and in fact one which reflects my very own taste & perspective, it was just a matter of time until some folks told me, that her/his favorite song from the past was not in the selection. So i spent quite some time during the past 2 days, discussing how to handle the left over 26 tracks from the past, which were not selected for "Dub Antiquities". Should I make another "blast from the past" album? "Dub Antiquities Chapter II"? However I planned to solve this, I couldn't, because I simply didn't have enough of the old tracks in suitable quality to get them on an album of a quality which would be accepted by the retailers/shops.

So yesterday evening, over a glass of good red wine I decided to give away the discontinued album "Excursions in Time & Space" from 2006 for FREE. No, not just for a limitited time, no sweepstakes here. FREE means just free. the album is released under a Creative Commons License and so you can just download it and do with it whatever you want. And without any further words, here's a direct download link. Have Fun!

DOWNLOAD "EXCURSIONS IN TIME & SPACE" FOR FREE

So, now we have found a solution for 26 of the 39 tracks of the 3 "problem albums". I'm sure, we'll find a solution for the leftover 13 tracks also, eh? ;)

alionsonny's "Dub Antiquities" - A new old album

A while ago, i told you about a little problem I have with my older albums. Because of different reasons, i do not have MP3 versions of all titles on those albums in a quality suitable for the online shops. For example, my distributor Routenote only accepts MP3s in a quality of 192 kbps or better. To make it short: I cannot distribute my old albums "Early Xperiments in Dub", "This is not really Reggae" and "Excursions in Time & Space" in their current form via Amazon, iTunes etc. Still many people ask where they can buy the old albums. Problem...

Or not a problem at all, because I now made a very easy and logical decision: All tracks from the old albums of which i do not have a sufficient MP3, a wave audio or the original project file will be soon released on a FREE album, which will of cause please all the freeriders. Yes, this will be a absolutely free download. And what about the other tracks? They will be published on one ot two new albums. If i like the sound of the existing versions, they go directly on the new album, otherwise they will get a remix. Some of the old stuff sounds really awfull and needs some work.

And now REAL good news: I allready compiled the traditional 13 tracks for the first "new old album". It is 9 tracks from the album "This is not really Reggae" and 4 from the album "Early Xperiments in Dub". 5 of the tracks have more or less been remixed and got a more or less extensive overhaul.

The album will be out in the shops, depending on how fast the folks at Routenote get the album pushed to the shops this time. If you can't wait at all, you can order allways directly from me.

The album title is "Dub Antiquities" and it will contain the following tracks:

01. Individuality (Original)
02. Terra (Original)
03. Malina Dub (Original)
04. Mountainbiking on Mars (Original)
05. Fyah pon everything (Original)
06. Revolution NOW! (Original)
07. Versionist Dub (Original)
08. Walking Dub (2012 Remix)
09. Drunken Joe in Space (Original)
10. Flying Dutchman dub (2012 Remix)
11. Interstellar Travel (Original)
12. Mandala (Original)
13. Walking Dub (2012 Remix)

"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:

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.

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.

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":

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.

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

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!