New song for the "Madeira" album: Santana, and more ...

Yes, things are going quite turbulent recently at the alionmind headquarters, and so it is not surprising that this post ends up just today on the Blog. I just took a look at the blog, and had to realize that since the 15th of July there has been no update. Well, that's really not good because I usually try to keep you updated. Anyway, let's make up for this! So: What has happened since the 15th of July 2013 regarding the Cimelium project?

De Omnibus Debutandum
Until October 17th, everything here at alionmind was rather focussed on the other projects, but at that exact date another track for the lovers of the more deep and dark Cimelium sound was published. Thus, this song, titled "De Omnibus Debutandum" (everything must be questioned) is of course a prime candidate for the dark sister album of "Madeira", namely "Ad Hominem". I hope now the doubters, who began to rebel slightly after the release of first few songs for the "Madeira" album, have calmed down a bit. No: Cimelium will not become another happy & funny music project from alionmind, but rather represents the more serious and more "thoughtful" part. So my "Cimelium Goths" (as I call them by now ;)) can relax.


Santana
Even much longer than the lovers of dark sounds, the friends of the "Madeira" album had to wait for something new. Since the 20th of May (Man, has it been for so long?) nothing has been done here. But now, exactly 3 days ago, after overcoming my latest depression attack, this changed and the 7th track for the album was completed. This time, the song is about the, as I call it, "pearl of the rough and tough north coast of Madeira", Santana. As with the other tracks for the album I have done my best to summarize my impressions of this place into sound. In the case of Santana, this was anything but easy. The north coast of Madeira was an absolutely overwhelming experience for me. Madeira is in itself one, but the north coast is even more rich in unique and absolutely fascinating aspects that it is difficult to choose a tangible amount to use as an inspiration for a piece of music. I still think that I have been able to put my personal impressions of Santana and the surrounding area in a suitable sound concept. Not everyone may experience Santana as I did, but we are all individuals. And if you rather hear Funchal or your breakfast out of this song... well... so be it.



Yes, and that's it. Closing this post, I would like to again ask the listeners of Cimelium for a bit of patience and understanding. As, at least most of you, know Cimelium is not my only music project. And if you think again, that alionmind records is dead, because you do not get new Cimelium sound material, I am working hard on the other projects. And if you, like now, get new stuff from  Cimelium, the fans of alionsonny and Willma Poppen have to wait . All in good time. So: Most probably you will have to wait quite a time again for new Cimelium music, because now it's the turn of the other projects. And if you do not like the wait, well, then expand your horizons and listen to the music of the other projects ;).

Cimelium finally has a Homepage again!

After some friends from Russia found it very funny to test the resident alionmind content management system for securty and finally even found a gap, I had to put all project homepages into a allmost non-functional security mode. By and by I improved the CMS and migrated the homepages one after the other to it. And so I present, yet not with all the glitter, the new Cimelium homepage.

There's no particular reason why Cimelium got its homepage fixed as the last of the projects. It just happened that way. As I said, not all functionality is implemented yet. I will do this step by step. At some parts, the layout still looks quite trashy. I will fix that some day. If you out there spot some problems with the site, please inform me and I'll fix it. ;)

ALEA IACTA EST - The die has been cast! New song!

Yes, the Facebook friends already know it, and so do the followers on Twitter: The song "Alea Iacta Est" was published allready two days ago on Soundcloud as a pre-release version. So, why didn't I immediately write a blog post about it? Well, I allready announced the song briefly the day before yesterday morning, so I did not consider it to be very important to write the official release announcement, especially since there always are a few stragglers who miss the song at the first announcement on Facebook and Twitter . And they will be for sure happy about a reminder ;).

In addition, I was just still busy, working at the new song, released yesterday for Willma Poppen, and did not want break the creative flow for some rather boring blogging ;). Generally you should not be surprised too much about the fact, that I currently do not follow the usual promo procedure. This is part of a small experiment by which I try to improve my promotion strategy. For this purpose it is necessary to analyze the promo channels which promise the greatest success. You can read more about that later on, on the badly maintained alionmind records blog.

Those were quite many words allready, even though I wanted to make it very briefly here today ;) And there was still no word about the new song... The new song is actually already somewhat old. Work on this began in 2009 as a crude sketch for the predecessor project of Cimelium, the alionsonny project "Alion Meditations". Last year, just before my departure to Madeira, I began to shape that sketch into pretty much the present status. Since November last year, the song has actually already been on my hardddisk and I always thought I would have to add something special to it.

So it was there allready for months. This is not unusual: Many songs in "almost complete" status are on the hard drive and about some sure many of you would say that they are ready for release. And so did a friend every time we listened through the "Almost done" directory. The day before yesterday then, I asked myself very seriously, what EXACTLY I would have to do at that song and the result was: "Well, maybe I should smooth out the mix a bit, but otherwise it's really perfect." Well, that it was actually: I smoothed a few edges and it was finished.

The song shows clearly from which time its beginnings originate. It could easily fit seamlessly on the "Mesopotamia" album. And since the new (described in my previous post) album idea "Ad Hominem" is also a small peace offering to the part of my audience, which is shocked  by the first songs of the 'Madeira' album, the new song fits perfectly on "Ad Hominem". What? You don't know about the resentment that the first songs for the 'Madeira' album caused? Well, somehow I felt a bit like in the early days of the project alionsonny, back in the days in which I annoyed my small growing fan base, by constantly trying new styles of music. Not just a small part of the early Cimelium fans is not quite pleased with the direction the Cimelium sound took with the start at the "Madeira" album. Some say it is too happy, others say it is too rythmic and others just say it is too structured. One disgruntled fan even said "Cimelium goes Willma Poppen" right after the release of "Cais do Sardinha". This is not intended at all. I had already announced shortly after the release of "Mesopotamia", that the next album would sound different. And I had already preplanned the basics. However, since the album is a theme album about "Madeira", droning arabic-inspired mystic sounds would simply be inappropriate for the topic.

The album Idea "Ad Hominem" now gives me the opportunity to provide the "old fans" again with the usual dark sounds, while I continue the work at the happy relaxing concept album 'Madeira'. So everyone gets what he wants ;)

The song "Alea Eacta Est" is again a so-called "free floater" in best "Mesopotamia" Tradition and thus joins also wonderful in the line of the other two already completed songs for the "Ad Hominem" album, as you can easily hear in playlist linked at the very bottom of this posting. And now here is, after many words, finally the song:

And here is the playlist of the album "Ad Hominem" so far with all three songs:

...and you thought it is all about "Madeira"...

...for this year! What am I talking about? I am talking about Cimelium albums! As some of you allready noticed, I release songs "out of the line" since I started to work at the album "Madeira". Those songs popped seemingly out of nowhere, had "strange titles in Latin" and are SO different from the current songs for the "Madeira" album. So, what about those songs, which sound a lot like a refined sequel to the "Mesopotamia" album? I will tell you...

Most of my long term friends and fans know, that I suffered a few nervous breakdowns and some bad times with heavy depression. As those who are following my doings know, I was able to beat the depression. The songs we are talking about are somewhat like a soundtrack or musical representation of the process of "healing my soul". They are mile stones on the path from deepest sorrow to the smirk you see on my recent photos, or just reprises for episodes gone by.

First I asked myself all the time, what I would do with those songs. Would they ever go on an album and if: What kind of album? Today, as I am finnishing another song like this, I decided, that the album will be, what it is: A musical representation of my road out of the depths. Because of that, I think, this will be the album, which grants you the deepest insight into who I am you ever had and will ever get.

So "Alea iacta est", the die has been cast, as the track who will be released to day will be titled! From today on, I work at two Cimelium albums simultaneously. The second album will be titled "Ad Hominem" and will most probably take much longer to be finnished than the "Madeira" album. This is because, the songs for "Ad Hominem" are no planned compositions, but "snapshots", sudden strikes of inspiration and sound scultures of certain moments.

Because of that, "Ad Hominem" will not in any way delay the release of the "Madeira" album. Shortly after this announcement, another song for "Ad Hominem" will be released, titled "Alea iacta est", and the fans of the Cimelium "free floaters" will love it ;)

...and Track number 6 for the album "Madeira" is done!

Who did expect this to happen? 2 songs in 2 days. That's the way it is meant to work. Well, but a musician is no machine. At least usually ;). And what do we have here? It is, as announced, again a song for those, who like it rather calm and contemplatively, instead of happy and rhytmic songs. As every Cimelium song, and especially those for the "Madeira" album, there is a story behind this song, and the story describes a particular place in Madeira. In this case it is the "Parque do Lido", the park and the promenade near the open-air bath in Funchal. The story is as follows: As there is no such thing as daylight saving time in Madeira, I got up one hour too early on the first day of my stay in Madeira. So I was more than one hour too early for breakfast. So I decided to take a walk to the Lido instead of going to bed again or wasting the time somehow else, to enjoy the morning atmosphere. Funchal comes to life in the morning in just a few minutes. While at 7:30 am Funchal is very much alive, at 6:30 everything is quiet. I did not meet a single car, not to talk about people, this morning at 6:30 am. Only the homeless cats at the park were there with me to greet the red-golden sun, which was rising above the ocean and flooded the park with warm light. The atmosphere was so peacefull and somewhat eerie, that I will never forget that morning. And I captured exactly that atmosphere in this song.

I am allready working at the next songs for the album "Madeira" and some of them are allready pretty much complete. The fans of my other projects may be angry about it, but I am currently completely focussed on this album, because I really want to finnish it soon. So, again, enough words, here's the song:

The fifth song for the "Madeira" album "Cais do Sardinha" is here!

Yeah, that took some time. Running gag, eh? No excuses, no "because of this" phrases. Now it is finally here. Some allready complained, that it it to rhytm-focussed and some even said, that it would rather fit on a Willma Poppen album. I don't think so. I allready told you, when the work at the "Madeira" album started, that this album will contain by far less "free floaters" than "Mesopotamia" and that it also will sound by far "happier". Well the topic Madeira is not a topic for dark, droning, arabian style sounds, right? So live with it: Each future album by Cimelium will have a own style. The only common thing will be the ethno elements, and that the music is somewhat calm, which doesn't mean, that it will all be rather non-rhytmic.

So, this is the fifth track for the album and so we have still a way to go until the traditionally 13 songs for the album will be finnished. This track is about a place at the far eastern tip of Madeira. It is a special place with it's own magic. It is a hidden place, surrounded by a stunning landscape with a very happy feeling and you will find all that in the new track, titled "Cais do Sardinha".

By the way: I decided for a new policy regarding to the pre-releases of Cimelium songs aswell as for all songs of other projects: A pre-release is a release like this one. It is, when I upload a new song for your listening pleasure prior to the release of the album, the song will be part of. All those pre-releases are NO final products. This means, they will most probably sound more or less different on the album and will change according to listener feedback and things I find odd listening to them myself. So this is a major drawback for the specialists who rip MP3s off the streams, because they will be easily identifyable as thieves, because of the unfinished versions they posess. Keep that in mind when showcasing ripped versions at a party or so ;)

So, with no further words, here's the song:


I also made a playlist for the songs released so far for the Madeira album, so you can hear them all in a row. each new track will be added to it when it is released.

Pico Ruivo for the "Madeira" album is ready!

I cannot really say, that it goes on with full speed regarding the work at the second Cimelium album, but slowly and steadily we go on. An you, who cannot wait for the album to be ready, please think about the fact, that I have loads of work to do at - not just a few - other projects also, and they also consume their ammount of time.

But now, just right for the start of the editing of the fourth part of "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira", it is once again done and a new, the fourth, track for "Madeira" is here. This time we hike waaaaayyy up to the highest peak of the island, the Pico Ruivo. I have, as some of you allready confirmed, managed it to catch the atmosphere of a hike, I did with a girlfriend in 2011 from Curral das Freiras to the Pico Ruivo. I tried to put all of my feelings and impessions I got on that hike into this song and hope it worked.

Soundwise this track is maybe something the longterm Cimelium listeners have to get used to, to really enjoy it. This is no, as I call it, free-floater, a calm wobbeling and evolving... something. This track has some real moments of surprise and this is intended. Hiking in the area around Pico Ruivo (and actually allmost everywhere in Madeira) is an adventure, which of cause has some surprises in store. It doesn't have (as it happened to me) a landslide suddenly blocking the hiking path. The impression, if you turn around a corner after hiking for hours along a rockface in thick fog, and suddenly there's that panorama above the clouds and valley unfolding before you... This is something I tried to put into that track, and also the moment, when you look at your feet and see you are standing on just a 30 centimetres wide crumbeling rim and see the little stones roll down into the valley... You understand...

And so I have to warn and also say sorry. Just as an example I mention a Facebook friend, who said at a special point in the track (you WILL know which one it is), that his "joint fell off his hand". Well, you shouldn't do this and... drugs are bad, mkay? ;) Yes, this can happen. Another reaction was "WHAT THE F*CK? OH, THAT'S INTERESTING! LOVE IT, MAN!". So: Aswell as you wouldn't do a hike to Pico Ruivo after consuming a sixpack of Zarco or Coral, you shouldn't listen to this track intoxicated or otherwise mentally-not-in-great-shape... unless you are one of the real diehards :D

Ok, enough of the words: Here's the mighty, dangerous and lovely Pico Ruivo. Watch your step!

"Ribeiro Frio" - A new track for the album "Madeira"!

Now things really take off. After all the album should be available for you as soon as possible and I don't want it to take as long as the release of the album "Mesopotamia". And I need the tracks to be finnished for using them in "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira". Yeah, so everything is again connected to everything and work once more creates more work.
The new track is about the liitle town Ribeiro Frio in the forested heart of Madeira and the surrounding majestic mountain area. I'm sure, that if you were there and at least think a bit like I do, you will hear the unique atmosphere of that place out of this little song.
Have Fun!

New track for the album "Madeira" - "Nossa Senhora do Monte"!

After some trouble during the past days, I am proud and happy to present to you the second track for the themed album "Madeira". The style will maybe be a bit unusual for the long term Cimelium fans.. and also for all the others. One thing upfront: If you cannot stand church organs at all, you better skip this ;). And yes: The album "Madeira" will be a lot more "conservative" and melody-oriented than "Mesopotamia". There are reasons for this ;)

Oh, many of you do not know anything at all about a new Cimelium album? Well, I must have forgotten to tell you about this somehow. Ok, so let's correct this now. Yes, of cause there will be a new album by Cimelium... or did you think, I will now just stop? ;) Ok, and that album will be about my beloved island in the sun, Madeira. Traditionally, there will be again 13 tracks on the album, each about a special location on the island, trying to capture the atmosphere. STOP! I allready hear my attentive fans saying "13 tracks? That's not enough to capture all the beautyfull places in Madeira!". Right, and because of that you can hear the faint sound of an album "Madeira Volume 2" at a far away horizon. But that's really a thing of the far away future.

Let's stay at the current album project "Madeira": One track I created allready last year, titled "Rabacal". Missed it? No problem, JUST CLICK HERE. As said: 13 tracks, each describing a special location in Madeira, more melody focussed than "Mesopotamia". Release date? Well, you ask questions... I don't want to promise too much. You know about my little problem with fixed dates... do you? But I can safely say, that something really bad must happen, if the album is not released this year.

Ok, much words, just as you know me... This current track "Nossa Senhora do Monte" is a bout the world famous church in Monte/Funchal and the surroundings. It was a place with a great feeling of majesty, peace and calmness for me. You just can feel great there, like allmost everywhere in Madeira. During a depression attack, which was taking me out of the game for the whole last week, I was nearly unable to do any creative work. Still I worked at this particular track from time to time. So you maybe hear to depression out of this track, but also hope and immortal bravery. I advise each and everyone going to Madeira to visit this marvellous place, and maybe you take a MP3 player with you and listen to this song while you are there. I am sure, you will 100% understand the song then. And now, enough said, here's "Nossa Senhora do Monte":