released March 23, 2023
REVIEWS:
"RINASCIMENTO is one hell of a statement. [...] Landmark MCIAA releases like this one are objectively as forward-thinking as many previous innovations that have provocatively challenged the way that people understand, experience, and appreciate organized sound (such as Just Intonation, chromaticism, John Cage's use of the I Ching, or the birth of noise)."
- Anthony D'Amico / BRAINWASHED
>> full review here:
brainwashed.com/index.php/reviews-easyblog/my-cat-is-an-alien-spiritual-noise-rinascimento
"It has been 25 years since this fraternal Italian duo began recording as My Cat Is An Alien and a dozen years since they were Wire cover stars. In honour of these anniversaries, Roberto and Maurizio Opalio have put together this insanely overwhelming art piece featuring almost six hours of music, a poster, an art catalogue and a historical manifesto, all cooked up during the pandemic at their secret headquarters in the Italian Alps.
They chose the CD-R as the format for this masterwork because CD-Rs remains a revolutionary anti-industry format through which almost anyone can get their music out to the world in a tactile way. Each of the discs contains a single piece of music, ranging from six to 40 minutes, and everything was recorded during 2021–22. The material is varied as hell, employing the exotic range of homemade (or home-altered) instruments MCIAA have been using as their primary voice for the last decade.
The music on these discs is a wonderful example of the spiritual space noise the Opalios have made their stock in trade. The vocals float like teapots full of secrets amid music that ranges from noisily machined circular electric guitar to massed percussing bells to subliminal messages via drumming to tape looped babbling to keys based whistling outer space doughnuts to subterranean pulse rumbles to Incan flute surgery to amplified jaw harp zonking and onward. Some of the pieces are fairly obtuse, others are quite beautiful by any standard.
I have heard some squares complain that MCIAA’s music is too loose – but what they play is not generally about linear structure. Their goal is not to script musical narratives, so much as to invent individual musical environments listeners can experience either individually or sequentially. If people wish to assemble and appreciate these discrete segments as though they told a story, that’s cool, but it’s not an inherent function of the music.
Since they first appeared, the Opalios have focused their energy largely on spaced out abstractions in a variety of media. Their music, writing, visual art and countless collaborations all explore different iterations of noise and the alien qualities that are always part of creating work from a personal template, rather than following someone else’s prefab notions. Anyone who is open to zoned avant garde weirdness (MCIAA’s music doesn't fall into any one neat genre) will find a lot of amazing sounds in this box. The duo have a very friendly way of presenting difficult material. I’ve played my way through these 15 CD-Rs thrice thus far, and they have really been blissing me out on these hot summer days.
I do wish I had enough spare time to gobble some acid, which I think might make the music sound even better. But I’m on deadline, y’know? You, on the other hand, are not on deadline. If you get my drift."
- BYRON COLEY / THE WIRE
ALBUM CREDITS:
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NOTE: MCIAA's assertion that each sound claims its own space is here extended to each individual piece of music, which has therefore been isolated in a disc entirely dedicated to it; thus the tracklisting is also intended for the listener to subvert the order, in case making use of random/chance operation à la Cage. However, each piece should not be considered except as a function of the whole work, conceived as an ever-expanding, psycho-sensory organic system.
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Maurizio Opalio – self-made double-bodied string instrument, pedal effects; snare drum, floor tom, cymbals, bell cymbal, real-time percussion loops & effects (6,9); washing machine drum (13)
Roberto Opalio – wordless vocalizations, alientronics, pedal effects, modified analog drum machine; cymbals & ball chains (6); bodhran (3); washing machine drum, real-time bodhran loops (13)
All instantaneous compositions performed, recorded and mixed by MCIAA at their secret Alien Zone studio in the Western Alps, over a one-year period between 2021 and 2022.
Mastering by Fabrizio Ronco.
Produced by MCIAA in multi-dimensional, full dynamics-frequency spectrum "STEREOALIEN FIDELITY".
Handcrafted box & inserts: concept & design by MCIAA.
Cover art, poster & book: collaborative artworks by Maurizio & Roberto Opalio.
Discs’ onbody: permanent ink pencil interventions by Maurizio & Roberto Opalio.
MCIAA portrait: Polaroid black-and-white film by Roberto Opalio.
Artist’s book co-published by Opax and Divinités Irritées.
Box handstamped and handnumbered 1/199 on back.
All music & art © 2023 My Cat Is An Alien. All rights reserved.
This edition ℗ & © 2023 Opax Private Press (OPX 050). All rights reserved.
