Alien Blood
(Opax - OPX030) LP $40.50
One of the most impressive and innovative MCIAA recordings to date, the original soundtrack from Roberto Opalio’s 2005-2008 film of the same name, currently getting screened as part of the Sonic Youth Etc.: Sensational Fix museum exhibition, has so far been presented at LIFE (France), and is scheduled around the globe for the next couple of years. The improvised score by My Cat Is An Alien follows the minimal and surrealistic beginning of the film with sparse echoes of eerie sounds, growing in dark timbres and pathos. Maurizio Opalio’s heavily effected "blood percussions" compress the air, while Roberto's wordless vocals, along with space toys, alientronics and mini-keyboard, walk the razor's edge of another dimension. The finale comes as one of the most epic crescendos ever performed by the Italian duo. Limited to 220 copies in handmade textured cardboard folders with full-color paste-on still images from the film.
Alienology - Selected Works 1998-2008
(Elliptical Noise - ALPHAOMEGA6555-64) 10xCD $79.00
Rare and out-of-print material from space brothers Maurizio and Roberto Opalio available for the first time in digital format, including the previously unreleased “Where The Lines Go To Sleep” from 2004. Starting with Landscapes Of An Electric City, MCIAA pondered Polaroids they had taken of their hometown Torino and decided a two-guitar improv would best represent the bare essence / sublimation of the metropolitan soul the way it felt inside them. Throughout the decade that followed, the brothers entrusted their “pictures of infinity” to a variety of labels that released their material in limited vinyl-only editions. Among other fundamental works, Alienology contains their self-described Great Void Trilogy, originally released on three separate LPs by Eclipse Records in the middle of the last decade. The latest work presented in the set, Alien Blood (Opax 2008) is the duo’s original soundtrack to the homonymic film by Roberto Opalio, shown at European museums as part of the Sonic Youth etc: Sensational Fix exhibition. Includes extensive liner notes and special art cards. Landscapes Of An Electric City (Ecstatic Peace 1999); The Rest Is Silence (Eclipse 2003); When The Windmill’s Whirl Dies (Eclipse 2004); There’s A Flame___Sometimes (Rococo 2005); Into The White Vortex (Opax 2007); Where The Lines Go To Sleep (previously unreleased); Greetings From The Great Void (Eclipse 2006); The Secret Of The Dancing Snow (Ikuisuus 2006); For The Tears Of The Land, Prayers From The Outer Space (Important 2008); Alien Blood (Opax 2008).
Black Shadows from Jupiter, Vol. I & II
(Elliptical Noise - ALPHAOMEGA6547-48) 2xCDR $16.00
Volume I was issued in 2005 by the Opalio brothers' Opax Records imprint in “Monalien Fidelity,” a reference / tribute to ESP's monaural sound recordings. Available in stereo for the first time, Volume I’s two long tracks are the very first music recorded by MCIAA after they moved to the new recording space located in the Western Alps, and contain Roberto Opalio's first experiments in wordless vocals. Five years later, in October 2009, they recorded Volume II, almost one hour of new material representing a unique journey in the darkest secrets of the S-System. Gatefold cardboard jacket with tape binding and paste-on artwork, with insert. Professionally duplicated in Germany.
KEIJI HAINO / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
Cosmic Debris Vol. 3
(Opax - OPX10) split LP $125.00
Third installment in the Cosmic Debris split-LP series sees the two space brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Japan’s ichiban cult musician and dark shaman. Both side-long tracks, recorded live in the performers’ respective hometowns, detonate cosmic skullbombs: Haino’s “Whither goes it? / That which can’st not but be described / As my prayer/ Nowhere held in common / Lunatic, unknowable...” should tell you everything you need to know about it just by the title, while MCIAA’s “Everything Crashes Like Cosmic Debris” kicks the ass that cannot be kicked. Each record comes with an original acrylic painting by Roberto Opalio on 30x30cm proper canvas, with a unique Polaroid instant film installed on each piece, representing 100 different perspectives of a same subject related to MCIAA’s own cosmic imaginary. Extraordinarily limited, as usual.
LOREN CONNERS & HIS HAUNTED HOUSE BAND / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
Cosmic Debris Vol. 5
(Opax - OPX012) split LP $125.00
On the fifth and final volume in the Cosmic Debris series the space duo shares the vinyl with legendary avant-blues guitarist, whose tracks "Improv" and "Thomas Paine" document his now-defunct project HAUNTED HOUSE (featuring his wife Suzanne Langille, Andrew Burnes, and Neel Murgai). MCIAA's "Everything Tears Like Cosmic Debris" seals the concept behind this series of "art manufacts" and collaborations. In the silence of The Great Void, sparse melancholic guitar chords and eerie vocalizations build up an astral chant in celebration of the end of an old age and the beginning of a new one. Packaged with an original acrylic painting by Roberto Opalio on 30x30cm canvas, with a unique Polaroid instant film installed on each piece, representing one of a hundred different perspectives of a same subject related to My Cat Is An Alien's own cosmic imaginary. Limited edition of 100 copies.
For the Tears of the Land Prayers from the Outer Space - Vol.1
(Elliptical Noise - ALPHAOMEGA6543) CDR $12.00
The first of an ambitious two-part series by the cosmic brothers Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, kicking off with an acoustic blues performed by Roberto, dedicated to the pioneers of the American primitive music and in particular to the spirit of Charley Patton. "It’s magical, mysterious and dreamy," says Indieworkshop, "19 million light years worth of dreams." Cardboard jacket with past-on artwork. Professionally duplicated in Germany.
Fragments Suspended In Time
(Opax - OPX32A) LP + CDr + DVDr $27.00
Recorded after the brothers Opalio spent a long period of self-imposed isolation in the Western Alps, far from everything but their own spirits. Side A ( the “alba” or “sunrise” side) overwhelms immediately with delicate grace, melodic texture, and Roberto's intimate, wordless vocalizations. Side B ( the “tramonto” or “sunset” side) increases the sweet, anti-gravitational sweet mood. One-time pressing of 250 copies on multicolor vinyl. Handmade, heavy cardboard jacket with paste-on silver artwork and 12-inch insert. A professionally duplicated CDr is included as a digital version of the album. The region-free DVDr (limited to 100 copies) contains a film by Roberto Opalio, inspired by the alba side.
Fragments Suspended In Time
(Opax - OPX32A) LP + CDr + DVDr Box $120.00
This art box edition adds to the regular edition the following: original art work by Roberto Opalio on six-page hand-bound booklet, mounted on 12" panel, numbered and signed; hand-lettered LP labels; hand-crafted box, numbered, hand-stamped and signed. Edition of 20.
From the Earth to the Spheres Vol. 2
(Opax - OPX002) LP $80.00
Thuja mine minimalism and sound textures within elaborate, real-time compositions that examine the nature of sound. Audio-visual artist Loren Chasse (Coelacanth) and Glenn Donaldson (Mirza, Sky Green Leopards, Birdtree and Ivytree) are joined on one of the their more adventurous and hypnotic works, “The Magma Is The Brother Of The Stone” by Rob Reger and collaborator Greg Bianchini. My Cat Is An Alien scan obscure and scattered drones as the world collapses into silence. The Italian duo’s high-frequency ectoplasm drifts away from the raw howl of the past toward a blues-y intimacy. Edition of 100, with Roberto Opalio’s painted wood covers.
GLANDS OF EXTERNAL SECRETION / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
From the Earth to the Spheres Vol. 5
(Very Friendly - VF023) split CD $15.00
Fierce blonde Barbara Manning and Bananafish founder Seymour Glass are joined by Nels Cline on lap steel for “Icebox,” a slow ascent from isolation through frozen tape manipulation, icy drones, and subtle infernal groans from the obscure side of the moon. The unearthly fragmented vocals of the Italian Opalio brothers create the heavy, emotional textures of the interstellar “After the Meteor Shower,” with howling guitars and electronics, the distant echo of a drum, and a whispered chant emerging from the concrete surface of the planet.
CHRISTIAN MARCLAY / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
From the Earth to the Spheres Vol. 7
(Opax - OPX007) split LP $75.00
The seventh volume in the From the Earth To the Spheres split vinyl LP series pairs the Opalio brothers with Christian Marclay (turntable, electronics) and Okkyung Lee (cello), who recorded their side -- where else? -- at Tonic in NYC, 2003. MCIAA’s side is also a live recording (from Italy in 2002). As with every other volume in the series, this is a limited edition of 100 copies, packaged in an original acrylic painting by Roberto Opalio on a 31x31cm wooden support, individually signed by the artist.
BIRDS BUILD NESTS UNDERGROUND / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
Gramofonu = Voice of The Universe
(Opax - OPX30A) LP $23.00
The first meeting of Prague-based turntable-and-8mm band and Italian psychedelic troubadours. Two different approaches yield a sound from the unknown realms of the outer space and the somehow-well-known world of old cracking records. BBNU provided MCIAA with some live improvisations, which were subsequently laced with sounds of guitars, space toys and ray guns, wordless singing and alientronics. Never has music of the spheres crackled so nicely. An improvised speech by a Czech avant garde poet Vítezslav Nezval kicks this off. Edition of 300
Il Segno
(Starlight Furniture Company) CD $15.00
(Starlight Furniture Company) LP $15.00
Beginning with a gloomy text entitled “The Sign” written by guitarist / lyricist Roberto Opalio, My Cat Is An Alien entered The Space Room and recorded this dark and concrete improvisation, a single piece of howling and caustic ruination. Maurizio Opalio comes out of the fog with desolate acoustic guitar scratches, Roberto’s electric space guitar scribbles as he spits out his words of urban alienation, and Viggiu Vortex joins the brothers on percussion. Piano toy and toy keyboard were added later to enhance the surreal lyrics inspired by ghosts, a sense of psychic, cultural and social isolation in their hometown Torino, Italy, and the infinite lightness and beauty between the cement and the sky. CD contains two non-LP tracks.
Listen Before Black Falls
(Root Strata - RS19) LP $15.00
A third eye laser beam shot from the catacombs of Torino, Italy. An acoustic guitar lullaby leads down a long, dark tunnel of alpha wave feedback. Jacket is silk-screened (front) and hand-lettered (back). Numbered edition of 300.
MICHAEL MORLEY / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / RAMONA PONZINI / LEE RANALDO
Live @ Sensational Fix
(Starlight Furniture Company - *25) LP $15.00
As part of the 2008 exhibition Sensational Fix, with a focus on Sonic Youth’s multi-disciplinary activities since 1981, My Cat Is An Alien performed live with long-time collaborator Ramona Ponzini, Michael Morley of Dead C, and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. Side B features solo pieces by each of the five members of this extemporaneous ensemble. Stills from the live footage shot by curator Roland Groenenboom appear on the color insert.
My Cat Is An Alien and the Analog Statement
(Opax) 5xLP $79.00
Five pearls from 2005 to 2010 re-issued and collected: On Air at Sound Projecting (Opax 2006), a live improvised performance from Ed Pinsent's Resonance 104.4 radio show in London; Epocsonixarp, the second album by Praxinoscope (the duo formed by Roberto Opalio and Ramona Ponzini); Alien Blood (Opax 2008), the original soundtrack to Roberto Opalio's film; Fragments Suspended In Time (Opax 2010), an anti-gravitational sweet mood recording captured in the Western Alps of Italy; and Gramofonu = Voice of the Universe (Opax 2010), a collaborative work with Prague duo Birds Build Nests Underground. All records repressed in the original form with original label artworks. Four black-vinyl platters and and one multi-color. Tri-fold jacket, paste-on silver artwork. Includes download coupon. Numbered edition of 100.
Photoelectric Season
(Elliptical Noise - ALPHAOMEGA6549-50) 2xCDR $16.00
During six months of physical and psychic isolation while on mystic retreat in a remote region of the Western Alps, the Opalio Brothers listened to Giacinto Scelsi, Erik Satie and Maki Asakawa and read Strindberg and Lautréamont. Created with electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, mini-keyboard, alientronix, and ancient zither, Photoelectric Season is a milestone in MCIAA's innovative and mysterious discography: their new “cosmic tones for mental therapy.” Gatefold cardboard jacket with tape binding and paste-on artwork, with insert. Professionally duplicated in Germany.
What Space Is Made For
(Elliptical Noise - ALPHAOMEGA6552-54) 3xCDR $33.00
The first step in the new parallel universe the brothers Opalio call "multi-layered instantaneous composition." Celebrated as sound sculptors, trance-state minimalists, impressionistic noisicians, hallucinators of dislocated inputs and outputs, haunting ambient mantra-chanters, cathartic tribalists, and visionary voyagers through three millennia of cosmic music, MCIAA recorded What Space Is Made For in their secret base on the Western Alps, and unlike previous works, it's mostly made of short pieces and songs, performed on electric and acoustic guitars, space toys, percussion, and home-made, modified, and assembled / disassembled primitive electronic equipment. An alternate edit of "The Antigravitational Sense Of Nothingness" is featured on the Wire Tapper 25 CD (April 2011). Booklet includes liner notes and text by Roberto Opalio. With six full-color art cards. Discs look like tiny replicas of vinyl platters, right down to the color.