The album "Madeira" is now available everywhere!

Thanks to my great distributor, we have a new time record regarding to the release of albums. Already two days ago, the "Madeira" album was available in the largest shops, ie iTunes and GooglePlay. It never went so fast.

So, and there it is. It really took long enough. The work on the oldest piece for the album began already in 2011! But who now thinks "Man, he always needs such a long time for everything!", is completely wrong. Six albums have been released since 2011, including the two first albums of Cimelium. I didn't work fulltime on this album since 2011. It still was a lot of work, all in all. And in my opinion it was worth it. It is a beautiful album.

And here we are at a possible problem: The album is beautiful, it is nice and cheerful. If you now think "Yay! Cimelium released a new album! I must have it!" and buy it at your trusted music dealer, you may be in for a unpleasant surprise. Mesopotamia and especially "Ad Hominem" were rather dark and very serious. "Madeira" comes in some places quite close to Willma Poppen, just from the cheerfulness level. If you like your Cimelium music dark and gloomy, maybe first listen to the album on Spotify or another streaming service. I do not like dissatisfied customers. So, is this cheerful sound the new Cimelium signature sound? No, definitely not. The next Cimelium album, the "continuation" of "Ad Hominem" will be gloomy, dark & serious again. Promised.

And since there are always people who just can't get enough, one or the other will ask: "And when will the next Cimelium album come?" Answer: This will take a LOOONG time, because two Cimelium albums have already been released in the first half of 2017 and now it's the turn of the two other music projects, not just out of fairness. So I ask for patience, if it is very quiet on this blog soon for long time. I'll be back as soon as the work on the fourth Cimelium album starts.

Here, however, the usual links, for people who find Google too complicated ;)

"Madeira" on GooglePlay
"Madeira" on iTunes
"Madeira" on Spotify

If you prefer another shop, simply search for "Cimelium Madeira" at your trusted music dealer. There are some pre-release-versions of songs of the album available online, e.g. On Soundcloud. However, these versions are in no way to be compared with the final product. They are unfinished. In order to avoid such confusion, I have stopped publishing any preliminary versions since a time.

Ok, that's it! I'll get back to you as soon as there's something new to report. This will most likely be on the occasion of the long-planned, completion of the Cimelium website, which is likely to also lead to a relocation of this blog

Be well!

"Ad Hominem" is now available EVERYWHERE!

...well, at least I think so. This is the case at least on the most important music sites, that I know. I intentionally waited a few days longer to post this, so also the slowest music sites had the chance to get it into their catalogues. By doing so, I wanted to make sure, that the album is available from as many sources as possible. I am 100% sure that it is available on (click the links to get directly to the album):

iTunes
Google Play
Amazon

You can also stream it on:

Spotify
Deezer

I'm not sure about the following sites / services, as I would have to create a (often charged) account there to check it:

• Napster
• Pandora
• emusic
• Rnd
• Groove
• Omnifone
• Wimp
• Anghami
• Claro-Musica

The album is for sure also available on one or the other site / service, I didn't list here. If your favorite source for music is not mentioned here, please let me know. I'll ask my distributor about it then. My distributor is always looking for more retailers.

Ok, and now have fun. The next album (Madeira) is making great progress, and will be out soon also.

Ad Hominem IS FINISHED!

It is done! It is done! It is FINALLY DONE! The latest and long awaited album "Ad Hominem" is finished and has been uploaded to the distribution service. It will (hopefully soon) be distributed to all major music sites, including streaming services, like Spotify. I want to say thanks to all of you, who were faithful during the hard times, during which I announced a lot and got not much done. Also thanks to those who gave feedback and suggestions and encouraged me to work further when I was close to giving up. Yes, this is a very special album in so many ways. Not just that it is the most personal album I created ever, because it is about depression, but also because it was created during a time which had many personal challenges for me. One can safely say, that this album was created not just out of melodies and rhythms, but also with a lot of very strong feelings. Now it is done and the 13th track's title is really fitting here: "O Dulce Nomen Libertatis", oh sweet name of freedom. I feel very free, now that this work is finally done. Apropos titles: For thos who, for what reason ever, do not read the posts on the Cimelium Facebook page, here's the full and final playlist:

• 01 - Ad Hominem (To the person)
• 02 - De Profundis (Out of the depths)
• 03 - De Omnibus Dubitandum (Everything must be doubted)
• 04 - Noli Me Tangere (Don't touch me)
• 05 - Nihil Verum (Nothing is real)
• 06 - Alea Iacta Est (The die is cast)
• 07 - Mortui Vivos Docent (The dead teach the living)
• 08 - Tempus Fugit (Time flies)
• 09 - Preaterita Mutare Non Possumus (To change the past isn't possible)
• 10 - Ne Obliviscaris (Do not forget)
• 11 - Quere Et Invenies (Seek and ye shall find)
• 12 - Sic Parvis Magna (Greatness from small beginnings)
• 13 - O Dulce Nomen Libertatis (Oh, sweet name of freedom)

I know that some now will ask "And what about the album 'Madeira'? It was announced to be released in December 2015!". Yes, that's true and it was 99% finished when my little personal armageddon hit me. I'll now grant my a week of rest and then finish this album also. You'll agree, that it is worth the wait.

Cimelium IS ALIVE!

Ad Hominem Coverart in it's current state (raw concept)

After more than a year of silence, shortly after the announcement, that the "Madeira" album would soon be released, I owe you an explanation. You agree with me, don't you? ;) I think I do not need to say, that the "Madeira" album is still not out yet.

What happened?
Well, life happened... I do not want to go into detail, because all is too private to me. But I can tell so much: A loved one, with whom I have been together for 25 years (yes, this is possible), has bitterly disappointed me in a very nasty way. This has completely paralyzed me and took away 100% of the creativity and joy of life, which usually gives me energy for everything. Friends: I was so far down, most of you probably can not imagine. But that is the past. I am still not quite through it, but I am again steeply on the way up.

What's next?
I really HAD to put the work on the "Madeira" album on hold for various reasons. There are too many memories connected to it. Every time I tried to work on it during the dark time, memories came back and it was extremely painful. So after I felt a bit better, I invested all my power in the "dark sister album", titled "Ad Hominem". As this theme album deals with the topic of depression, it fitted quite well. And, actually, as I write this, I am in the process of polishing the 13 pre-release-versions, and creating the final versions. I don't want to promise anything, but when I say that it is only a matter of days, it is just about right.

Those who have so much looked forward to the release of the "Madeira" album do not have to mourn: I am now again able to work safely on the pieces for the album. And since the album was almost finished at the time of my little private apocalypse, it will not be long, after the release date of "Ad Hominem", until "Madeira" is also released. Keep your fingers crossed that everything is going well. Then you will soon get 2 Cimelium albums, one after the other. Great, eh?

And so you can look forward to something, here are a few samples of "Ad Hominem" pieces in their present state:

Ok, I'm back at work!

Last Pre-Release and: "Madeira" is C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E!

Yes, this is great news: All 13 tracks for the "Madeira" album have been completed as pre-release versions! At the end of this post, you find the pre-release version of "Pico Ruivo Tunnel", the last track destined for the album. And it is a quite unusual one. Not unusual for Cimelium, but rather unusual for this, quite happy, album. Malina already said, that it may be more suitalbe for the "Ad Hominem" album, and I somewhat agree. But to me it refelects the feelings and impressions I had on that day, when we hiked through the Pico Ruivo tunnel to the Caldeirao do Inferno (CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO!). "Madeira" will be a really colorful album indeed. It spans from very cheerful and happy tracks via melancholic sounds to the quite dark "Pico Ruivo Tunnel".

So what's now? Now the 13 tracks have to be polished and thus turned into the final album versions. Will this take as long as it did for the last Willma Poppen album? For sure not, but it will take it's time still. Also I want create some nice cover art, as always. I could use a collage of some nice of the many photos Malina took during our trips to Madeira, and I seriously think about doing exactly that. On the other hand I would find this to be "too easy". Anyway, I'll have to make a decision soon.

And what about the darker album "Ad Hominem"? I just wanted to write, that work at this project is on halt as until "Madeira" is finished, but no: Every now and then I need a musical journey to "the dark regions of my soul" and so the work at this album will slowly go on. Somehow I got the impression, that by far more people are actually waiting for "Ad Hominem" to be released than for "Madeira", but first things first.

Ok, and now enough words. Here's the last track for "Madeira". Note: This time I spent very little time on mixing and EQing everything properly for the pre-release version, because I wanted to showcase that thing very quick and move on to the album completion.

Finaly a new song for the "Madeira" album: "Porto da Cruz"!

Oh well... this is the second Blog on which I have to write, that nothing happened since about a year. Makes me feel just a bit bad, because actually I haven't been idle. As always somebody had to wait in favor of the friends of other projects. Simple as that!

But now the long wait has an end. The album on the Willma Poppen album is done, I have set my priorities different and generally have a new strategy. And so I finished a new song for the long due "Madeira" album yesterday as a pre-release version. So we need just one pre-release version until we can finally start polishing the album versions.

The current song is about the picturesque little village Porto da Cruz at the north coast of Madeira. And the last song is also already heavily in the works. it will be themed after my hike in 2014 through the Pico Ruivo tunnel. It will be for sure the most dark track on the album and Malina already said, that it would fit better on the upcoming "Ad Hominem" album.

The polishing of the pre-release versions aka turning them into album versions will also not take as much time as it did for the Willma Poppen album, because by now, as I said, I have a new strategy and the songs for the "Madeira" album do by far not need as much work. So, with no exaggeration, I can say, that it is more than just possible, that "Madeira" will still be out in 2015.

What about the "dark sister album Ad Hominem"? Well, even though I have many great tracks in the works, it is currently on halt. One of the conceptual failures I did recently was to not concentrate on one thing at the time e.g. not setting priorities. I'll not repeat that failure! So for now it is "Madeira" and my little video projects. That's enough to keep me busy for a while. I know that some of the friends of the first Cimelium album "Mesopotamia" (which is by the way by far the best seller of all alionmind albums) are a bit worried about the Cimelium sound getting too happy, cheerful and generally away from the old dark experimental sound.This cannot happen, friends. It is just, that I wanted to do an album about Madeira and a dark and gloomy sound would not fit it... well aside of the Pico Ruivo tunnel.

Ok, enough words! Let's work! Here's the pre-release version of "Porto da Cruz"...and never forget: Pre-release is NOT the final product!

New song "Queimadas" and plans for the "Madeira" album!

Typical Queimadas!

The song was introduced two days ago on Facebook and Soundcloud already. This is one more example for why it is a good idea for real Cimelium fans to either "like" on Facebook or follow on Soundcloud. The slight delay of the update of website and blog results once more of a time conflict with another of my projects. More You don't necessarily have to know about it ;).

Queimadas
The new song is, as maybe expected, intended for the album "Madeira", and describes this time a picturesque village in the mountains south of Santana. This time I decided for an orchestral style approach and as it looks like the first listeners loved it. At least I had NEVER so many listeners in just 2 days without blog promo and publication of it on the homepage. Thank you! You encourage me. Here's the song again for those who missed it:

The album "Madeira" - almost done!
So we are now only two songs away from the completion of all traditional 13 songs for the album. And if you're thinking that this will take forever, I can not promise anything but:

1. The locations, described by the two missing songs, have already been selected. One is the Pico Ruivo Tunnel and the other is Porto da Cruz.
2. The two pieces were already completed in form of more or less detailled arrangements of approximately 5 minutes each. So rather a work of minutes instead of hours.

"Madeira" and then what? "Ad Hominem"?
One or the other asked already about what will happen after the completion of the "Madeira" album. So first don't forget about the dark sister album "Ad Hominem" in process, which is only completed almost 50%. But this means that I still have to work for a long time on it. What about the "sun children" amongst the Cimelium fans? Will they, until the album is finished, only get "dark music". Not at all!

Monumental work "Madeira Triptych"!
One or the other already carefully sugested, that something like Madeira can not be dealt with in just one album with 13 tracks. And not just a few noticed the absence of the capital Funchal in the planning for the current album. This is due to the fact that Funchal is a world in itself on the island. Jokingly I said to Malina the other night, that I could make a whole album about Funchal alone: So many places that are completely different even at the respective day- or night time in their feeling. And Malina's answer was THE answer: Then make one! Yes, an album only about Funchal. Sounds crazy? It is perhaps, but necessary. And even crazier like this here's the, now evolved, planning: Madeira will become an album triptych! This means that there will be THREE Madeira albums. Think about it as some kind of an altar: In the middle of it an album just about the queen of the villages of Madeira Funchal. And this album is flanked by two albums that deal with various, to me, important places on the island. Great idea, is it? But a great deal of work! Let's go for 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:

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":

The winners of one free download of the album "Mesopotamia"!

I congratulate the 5 winners of one free downloads of the album "Mesopotamia":

Facebook:
Mlx Mkfv
Peter Eppich Sonnenland
René Hartmann
Rob Roy

FL Studio Forum:
Tambour

I will, of cause, contact all winners personally, so everyone gets his price.

Win one of five free downloads of the album Mesopotamia by Cimelium!

To celebrate the marvellous fact, that the album Mesopotamia by Cimelium is now available in the shops, I decided to start a little contest. The five winners get a free download of the album Mesopotamia by Cimelium. This is also thought of as some kind of a christmas present and because of that, the drawing of the winners out of all Facbook "likers" and mailers will take place at christams. The winners will be notified at christas on Facebook or via mail.

And here is, how you can participate:

1. If you didn't do it yet, listen to the album Mesopotamia by Cimelium.
2. LIKE the Facebook page of Cimelium
3. Write at the Cimelium Facebook Wall, which song on the Mesopota album you like most (maybe why? ;))

"STOOOP! I have no Facebook !!!"
No problem. You can still participate: Just write a mail to cimelium@alionmind.com and tell me which song on the Mesopota album you like most (maybe why? ;))