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

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

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

Größere Kartenansicht

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Status alionsonny "Continuity" album

Since not all listeners of my music are on Facebook, and some are, but for some reason missed to subscribe to my news, I can not be sure that all interested folks are informed about the progress regarding the "Continuity" album. For this reason, and because it is also useful information for the monthly alionmind News Blog, I want to describe which 13 tracks will be on the album, and in which state of completion they are. Here we go:

Greenhills
From the pre-release version of this song is NOTHING left. It is the oldest title destined for the album. The first version was presented in 2010 . Accordingly, I had to improve a lot and it was a pretty intense task to make this old song a worthy part of the new album. But: DONE!
Current version : RELEASE

Nero d ' Avola
Despite the fact that, since the last time I worked on this song plenty of time has passed, quite a bit had to be improved here. A little work on mixing and EQing and a few small adjustments to the structure and everything was DONE!
Current version: RELEASE

Going Bonkers
On this item I am currently working and have just a few minor improvements to do. Again, MUCH has been changed here and the release version differs significantly from the pre-release.
Current Version: pre-release

Bulletproof
To do yet. However, I can not hear much that could be improved on this song. A little EQing and everything should be done. But let's see.
Current Version: pre-release

Drunken Joe In Love
THAT is still a real problem child! There is extremely much to improve here and I think in the end of this, there will be not much left of the pre-release version ;) .
Current Version: pre-release (awful condition!)

Madeira
Do not know what to make of it. Certainly a great song, but somehow something is missing ;) .
Current Version: pre-release

Talking Cat
Nice song, some improvements possible, but absolutely nothing I have to be worried about.
Current Version: pre-release

A Sunny Day
The absolutely exceptional track destined for this album in several aspects: There was ZERO suggestions for improvements or even complaints about this track for half a year the first version is now  on SoundCloud. On the contrary, I got an incredible amount of positive feedback about this song. And I can not find anything to improve at "A Sunny Day". So EXCEPTIONALLY the pre-release version was declared to be the release version. DONE!
Current version: RELEASE

Flight of the Butterfly
Okay. Minor improvements are conceivable, but definitely not a big job.
Current Version: pre-release

The Storm
A few obvious opportunities for improvement, but quite ok. Not much work.
Current Version: pre-release

Pirates of Madeira
I am tempted to declare the pre-release version to be the release version, but let's wait and see. I think it is perfect!
Current Version: pre-release

Ganja In The Jar
Absolutely fine, but I know a few things that can be improved. Not much work to do.
Current Version: pre-release

BrainForest Chapter II
Just finished ... and I think it 's perfect. Nevertheless ... let's see... ;)
Current Version: pre-release

Ok, that's it. I am again at work so that you pretty soon get your album :).

"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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

AlionLive - Bike ride to the Lüneburg Heath - Here we go!

Now  barely 2 months have passed since this bike ride took place. But you know that there are still other things to do and I'm never really idle. But now finally the first part of the video series is ready for you.

What do you get to see? First of all: This first part is by far the most boring of the series. At least I think so. It's just only the ride to the destination. I had to get the, because of months of sitting behind a computer, rusted and dusted bodything going again and really wanted to get quickly to Lüneburg. In addition, unexpected problems, caused by the absolutely insane road design near  Geesthacht caused some real trouble. You can learn more about it in a, on the AlionLive channel up to now unpreceded and unusual, rant at the end of the video. Yes, I think the next parts of this video series will be by far more interesting. I hope that this introduction part is good entertainment for you still.

The video starts on the morning of August 25th, even though I already started the night before and rode the first kilometers to a quiet place near Glinde. There I built up my tent and that is where the video begins. After a more or less long opening speech ;) I get on the way, tell you a bit about the kind of food I eat during bike rides, am forced to a considerable detour because of the lack of braincells in the skulls of some road planners in Geesthacht. Nevertheless, I manage it in the end to get to the front gates of Lüneburg... just as planned. However, the video ends already before this in Bardowick where I am celebrating the above-mentioned little rant.

The soundtrack is completely from the upcoming album "Continuity" by alionsonny :

1. Talking Cat
2. A Sunny Day
3. Nero d ' Avola
4. Pirates of Madeira
5. Flight of the Butterfly

Have much fun!

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

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

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