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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.