Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
€7EUR
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Private press edition of only 100 copies. Marble turquoise / petrol color vinyl LP. Pasted artwork on printed cover, each with unique color markers' variations by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio. Includes insert on fine art paper + 24“ x 12” ful-color double sided “Free Jazz Manifesto” POSTER. Hand-numbered 1/100 on back. Concept & design by MCIAA.
Includes unlimited streaming of One For Ra
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
(My Cat Is An Alien, Joëlle Vinciarelli, Philippe Robert)
ONE FOR RA is an instantaneous composition. The music is totally improvised. Total improvisation without any preconceived score or structure equals composition for us.
ONE FOR RA is dedicated to Sun Ra. In particular it’s a tribute to the album Sun-Ra and his Astro Infinity Arkestra “Strange Strings”, first released on his own Saturn label in 1967.
We all played a spontaneous composition performing ancient, mostly ethnic, acoustic string instruments from Vinciarelli’s vast collection. All instruments were completely “untuned”, thus following Sun Ra’s approach to that peculiar work—which he called “a study in ignorance”. The sounds are acoustic and no electronics are involved—except for a short, real-time looped vocal part. No use of overdubs nor outtakes.
ONE FOR RA has been performed at the end of some days of intense recording sessions for My Cat Is An Alien & Joëlle Vinciarelli’s project > ETERNAL BEYOND > . The idea came out the same day during a conversation with Philippe Robert, renowned music critic and writer as well as self-declared non-musician. Thus his involvement in the performance as fourth member of the group was even more exciting and challenging.
Listening to the final piece, the extreme cohesion of sound at times makes it difficult to be sure who was playing what. Yet that’s a further point to enter into the core of the composition. We highly suggest to the listener to forget there are four people on this recording and try to hear it as a whole. ONE FOR RA, indeed!
--Maurizio & Roberto Opalio, Saturn, Solar System, March 2021
NOTE: this record is also conceived as a sort of compendium to the book by My Cat Is An Alien & Philippe Robert “FREE JAZZ MANIFESTO” published by Lenka lente editions in April 2021.
credits
released April 2, 2021
THE STRANGE STRINGS ENSEMBLE - “ONE FOR RA”
Maurizio Opalio – ancient zither, lamellophone, small string instruments
Roberto Opalio – wordless vocals, 9-string ancient acoustic guitar, metal sticks, looped vocals, small string instruments
Philippe Robert – ektara gopichand, antique upright piano board
Joëlle Vinciarelli – vocalizations, French ratchet, rhombe
Recorded and engineered by Maurizio & Roberto Opalio aka My Cat Is An Alien (MCIAA) at Joëlle Vinciarelli's private studio in Saint-Jeannet, France; January 5, 2020.
Mixed by MCIAA at Alien Zone studio, Western Alps.
Mastering by Fabrizio Ronco.
Produced by My Cat Is An Alien in multi-dimensional, full dynamics-frequency spectrum “STEREOALIEN FIDELITY”.
Cover artwork concept by MCIAA
Cover art: indian black ink drawing by Roberto Opalio
Color markers by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio
“STEREOALIEN FIDELITY” logo by Roberto Opalio.
Jacket design and layout by MCIAA.
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