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!

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 ;)

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!

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 

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!

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 ;)

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:

• Cimelium - Electronic Ethno, Chillout, Meditation -> formerly AlionMeditations
• Willma Poppen - Techno Pop of the most commercial kind
• Tubenwurst - Electronic Rock, Wave, Avant Garde -> successor of the album "Electronic Spacerock"

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!