BIRDS BUILD NESTS UNDERGROUND / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
Gramofonu = Voice of The Universe
(Opax - OPX30A) LP $23.00 (Out-of-stock)
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.
THURSTON MOORE / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
From the Earth to the Spheres Vol. 1
(Opax - OPX001) LP $75.00
Moore’s 21-minute piano improv “American Coffin” recalls textures on Dave Burrell’s Echo LP and some of Stockhausen’s wilder moments. Feedback splinters add a layer of fragmentation, as do howling guitar musical collage inserts, permeated by a cloud of dust and debris. My Cat Is An Alien’s “Brilliance In The Outer Space,” influenced by early American minimalism, flows through inner and outer dimensions. 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.
On Air At Sound Projecting
(Opax) Used LP $25.00
The entire improvised live performance at Ed Pinsent’s Sound Projecting radio show, broadcasted by London’s Resonance 104.4 FM, December 2004.None of the usual cosmic guitars, but rather space toys, toy-microphones, pocket theremin, mini-Casio. Pinsent himself guests on turntables. Photocopy art cloth taped to jacket, numbered edition 60/158.
My Cat Is An Alien and the Analog Statement
(Opax) 5xLP $79.00 (Out-of-stock)
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.
From the Earth to the Spheres Vol. 2
(Opax - OPX002) LP $75.00
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 $30.00
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.
RE-SI-STEN-ZA!
(Opax - OPX039) 2xLP $73.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Opax - OPX039) LP $23.00 (Out-of-stock)
This foretaste of My Cat Is An Alien’s 20th anniversary in winter 2017 well represents the summa of the duo’s musical lifespan, from their early space-toys era to their current home-made electronics and string instruments output. On the title track, the Opalio brothers are “at the height of their wiring and warping powers,” according to Mark Barton of The Sunday Experience, who goes on the proclaim the track “an absolute wig-flipped tour de force that [morphs] through elements of noise, musique concrète, stoner earthbeat and cosmic spiritualism…. [This] immense and often brutal, cranium-collapsing palette of psychotropic goo … shapeshifts with such out-there aplomb that you … fear your mind might fry.” Meanwhile, the liner notes call attention to the cornerstone of the instantaneous composition “Let Their Voices Speak Through The Wind”: the voice “transcending itself into a flux of infinite voices dislocated throughout the atemporal dimension of the Spheres, which float in the ether and permeate our physical bodies like ‘cosmic debris’ lulled by the wind. Voices of ghosts … represent a blinding light within the deepest darkness of this [increasingly] sad and lost planet, and … leave a trace of beauty and existential meaning in our lives.” Metallic gold vinyl. Tri-fold sleeve, textured fine-art cardboard. With antique map replica poster and three inserts on parchment paper. Includes free download card. Edition of 300.
2xLP art edition includes a second hand-painted platter by Roberto Opalio. Edition of 50
MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / JOËLLE VINCIARELLI
> Eternal Beyond >
(Opax - OPX038) 2xLP $63.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Opax - OPX038) LP $21.00 (Out-of-stock)
This collaborative project by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio and French underground queen Joëlle Vinciarelli (of Talweg and La Morte Young) began in Spring 2015 when the outsider instantaneous composers traced a magic triangle on a map between their hometown Torino, their current Alien Zone secret base in Western Alps, and the mysterious area over Nice’s hills known as Le Village Nègre. The duo’s otherwordly sounds and Roberto’s eerie wordless vocals melted with Vinciarelli’s unique, underwordly voice. An antique upright piano soundboard, home-made wooden string instruments, modified electronic devices, an old pendulum clock mechanism, bells and an old trumpet were played during the four-day recording session. The result purposely bypasses the present and builds a bridge between the archaic and the future. Marbled color vinyl. Liner notes by Philippe Robert. Includes free download card. Edition of 300.
2xLP art edition includes a second hand-painted platter by Roberto Opalio. Edition of 30
Fragments Suspended In Time
(Opax - OPX32A) LP + CDr + DVDr $27.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Opax - OPX32A) LP + CDr + DVDr Box $120.00 (Out-of-stock)
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.
The 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.
MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / CÉDRIC STEVENS
Abstract Expressionism For The Ears
(Opax - OPX037) 3xLP $38.00
Dreamy sound architecture, floating sculptures of abstract drones and cannibal noise, modal piano, ancestral strings and electronic futurism, and celestial music of the Spheres imbued with vocal exorcism textures. Over two hours of long-form spontaneously composed pieces recorded during Maurizio and Roberto Opalio’s intense February 2014 residency in Brussels collaborating with the Belgian electronic composer also known as Acid Kirk. Heavy-duty, color laminated jacket. Includes digital download card. Edition of 300. Listen to an album sampler here: https://soundcloud.com/elliptical-noise/my-cat-is-an-alien-cedric-stevens-abstract-expressionism-for-the-ears-album-sampler
Aurora Coelestis
(Opax - OPX036) 2xLP $60.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Opax - OPX036) LP $21.00 (Out-of-stock)
Two instantaneous compositions for glockenspiel and voice by one half of outside space duo My Cat Is An Alien, recorded March 2014 in homage to early minimalism, intended to be listened to at low volume, quietly in a room. These “incredible glides through the darkest recesses of [the] solar system,” says Byron Coley, “extend celestial glimmering into eruptive plains of infinity. Cosmic burbles worthy of Gong mix with expansive tones…. Beautiful, cold and deep. It will make all of your bones feel very soft. The third piece, ‘Hic et Nunc’, a piece for manipulated vocals ... is like being sucked through a long tube that lights up and resonates as you pass [through]. Alien lips quiver nearby and you can smell a kind of breath you have never smelled before. It’s a wonderful trip through bubble time…” Tri-fold jacket made of heavy transparent blue textured cardboard; 12”x16” color folded cover / insert; liner notes; download card. Each copy has one of three different 4”x6” original photographs Opalio mounted on back, representing diverse perspectives of the glockenspiel during the session. Handstamped, hand-numbered edition of 200. Listen to a sample here: https://soundcloud.com/elliptical-noise/roberto-opalio-aurora-coelestis-album-sampler
The double-LP bonus includes a vinyl art object (original acrylic painting by Opalio on Side A) and a piece of the glockenspiel. Edition of 50. Watch images here: http://mycatisanalien.tumblr.com/post/98625037828/roberto-opalio-aurora-coelestis-opax-records
Lights In The Space Room
(Opax) Used LP $50.00
A 2002 ambient-psych-noise improv adventure recorded at two o’clock in the morning, a one-time collaboration by My Cat Is An Alien, Amour en Stéréophonie, and percussionist Viggiu Vortex. Diecut folder sleeve. Orange poster insert. Orange vinyl. Edition of 100.