* 2024 stock CD in 4-panel, full-color gatefold digisleeve sleeve. Cover painting by Roberto Opalio. Design by My Cat Is An Alien.* In addition to his innate, idiosyncratic improvisation skill, Roberto’s contribution to My Cat Is An Alien (his duo with brother Maurizio Opalio) was to give the project a strong multimedia and visual esthetics which still stands out as a distinctive trait. He indeed created the “alien cat” logo, My Cat Is An Alien’s trademark, which was initially hand sprayed on the handcrafted covers of MCIAA’s first ‘self-titled’ CD-R, then associated with the brothers’ own Opax Records private imprint, printed on posters and t-shirts, even used as subject of several of the duo’s artworks and artist’s books. Having been doing painting, glass art and photography for several years before MCIAA formed, his own works in visual art revealed a rich source of material to use as cover artworks of the band’s 200+ albums released worldwide so far. Especially, Roberto Opalio’s iconic figure of the “Alien”, “a stick figure with widely extended arms and legs, its head a single sharply elliptical eye, permanently open and staring out at the universe that surrounds it” (Ken Hollings / The Wire), symbolizing the transfiguration of the existential vision of the last human being on Earth, gets painted, drawn or sculpted in iron wire in most of his works, including his “cinematic poetry” films projected during MCIAA’s live performances.

Photography had a great impact on MCIAA’s imaginary as well, Roberto capturing with b&w 35mm films, slides and Polaroids thousands of views of his hometown Turin’s industrial monuments of early 1900’s before politicians demolished almost everything–this is the reason why the cover of MCIAA’s ‘Landscapes Of An Electric City’ released by Thurston Moore on his Ecstatic Peace! label is now a prime example of “ghost cover”. Polaroids played a distinctive role also during the band’s live performances: Roberto’s ‘On-Stage Live Action Series’ art installations testimony hundreds of shots taken while playing his trademarked “space toys”, which he abandoned in 2012 for modified electronic devices that he named “Alientronics”. Well known for his unique wordless vocalizations, his more sporadic spoken word poems reveal Roberto Opalio’s mastery in entitling all of MCIAA’s albums and pieces since the beginning. 

Roberto Opalio exhibited alongside works by artists such as Mike Kelley, Raymond Pettibon, Tony Conrad, John Cage, Glenn Branca, George Maciunas, Gerard Richter, Robert Smithson, Richard Prince, Gus Van Sant, Gerard Malanga, Vito Acconci, Jonas Mekas, Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, to name a few. My Cat Is An Alien has been under the radar of thousands of visitors during the opening days of the 57th Venice Art Biennale in May 2017, when MCIAA activated the Studio Venezia project at the French Pavilion invited by artist Xavier Veilhan and curator Christian Marclay. ‘Once you'll touch the sky you will never return to dust’ is an almost 1-hour long instantaneous composition performed with a prepared mini-keyboard, a handmade shortwave receiver and Roberto Opalio’s patented Alientronics and wordless vocalizations. It is a masterpiece of modern minimalism, an ecstatic voyage where time and space lose their meaning, thus glorifying the phylosophic, poetic lyricism that other visionary vanguards and artists of the past have always dealt with, from Friedrich Nietzsche’s “here and now”, to Muhal Richard Abrahams and Don Cherry’s “eternal now”. “Towards the Sun”, headed Arthur Rimbaud. “Space Is The Place”, asserted Sun Ra.

“As with all recent My Cat Is An Alien releases, it feels hopelessly reductionist to view Once You'll Touch The Sky as an album and even the fact that it is art feels somewhat beside the point.Instead, it is something more akin to a religious experience—not in a hyperbolic sense, but it is definitely a ritualistic event that can transform the energy in a room and strip away the veil of consciousness for a while. That said, sometimes the stars metaphorically line up perfectly to create an especially transcendent communion with the Opalios' extra-dimensional plane of consciousness and this is one of those times. Once You'll Touch the Sky is one of the true gems in the MCIAA canon, as it is every bit as immersive and reality-dissolving as I would expect, but goes a bit deeper and further than usual in every sense. This is more than just a gateway into an alien dreamscape, as it has a clear arc that leads far beyond the starting point. Also, it feels like an unusually soulful and tender journey. I do not think I have ever described an album by the Opalios as soulful before, as subtle shades of emotion tend to get hopelessly eclipsed by the all-engulfing scope of their lysergic vision, but this album is understated and purposeful enough to let Roberto's humanity seep into its ecstatic alien reverie.” – Anthony D’Amico