Edward Ka-Spel, Motion Kapture

LP version. Alien Subspace is the first album by Edward Ka-Spel, voice of The Legendary Pink Dots, with the Italian duo Motion Kapture. Ka-Spel is credited with voice, effects and noises. The duo surrounds him with long pieces of synthesizers, guitar and bass that sit between ambient music, psychedelic prog and space rock. It came out in November 2019, while the Pink Dots were touring for their fortieth anniversary.

Motion Kapture are Stefano Rossello, also of Bahntier and Ketvector, and Filippo Corradin, also of Bahntier and Lingams & Yoni. Rossello plays guitar, Mellotron, Space Echo and a set of synthesizers including the DX7, Juno 106 and SH-101, and drew the artwork. Corradin plays bass, Minimoog, Prophet 08 and modular units. The album was recorded at O.M. Studio in Agna near Padua, Suonare Sergio in Bologna and Furnace Studio in Legnago near Verona, with preproduction and recording by Aux Jack. Justin Bennett, known for his work with Skinny Puppy and Ketvector, produced, mixed and mastered it at Studio 23 in Bologna. The duo had released their own album Out of Focus on Rustblade earlier the same year.

The eight tracks are split evenly over the two sides and lean towards length. Currency opens side A at seven minutes. Side B moves from the title piece Subspace through No Configuration to One Half Door, another seven-minute piece, before A Happy Grey Circle closes the record. The instrumentation points to a vintage palette: Mellotron, analogue and early digital synthesizers and tape echo, with guitar and bass stretched into drones. Over this Ka-Spel sings and speaks his lyrics and adds his own effects and noises, in songs such as Delicate Affair, Why We Live and Too Late for Miracles.

The label named Tangerine Dream, progressive space rock, Area and Coil as the album's points of reference. Announcing the release, ReGen Magazine wrote of Ka-Spel "lending his evocative vocals and transcendent noise effects" to the duo's progressive ambient and psychedelic textures. The partnership continued with Anagramma, again on Rustblade, in 2022.

LP edition released by Rustblade on 18 November 2019 (RBL073LP), limited to 499 copies, in a die-cut sleeve with a printed inner sleeve.