`make dist` fails without prior `make`

[brancomat]

$ make dist
make  dist-gzip am__post_remove_distdir='@:'
make[1]: Entering directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib'
if test -d "meteosatlib-1.9"; then find "meteosatlib-1.9" -type d ! -perm -200 -exec chmod u+w {} ';' && rm -rf "meteosatlib-1.9" || { sleep 5 && rm -rf "meteosatlib-1.9"; }; else :; fi
test -d "meteosatlib-1.9" || mkdir "meteosatlib-1.9"
 (cd decompress && make  top_distdir=../meteosatlib-1.9 distdir=../meteosatlib-1.9/decompress \
     am__remove_distdir=: am__skip_length_check=: am__skip_mode_fix=: distdir)
make[2]: Entering directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib/decompress'
make[2]: Leaving directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib/decompress'
 (cd msat && make  top_distdir=../meteosatlib-1.9 distdir=../meteosatlib-1.9/msat \
     am__remove_distdir=: am__skip_length_check=: am__skip_mode_fix=: distdir)
make[2]: Entering directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib/msat'
make[2]: Leaving directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib/msat'
 (cd gdal && make  top_distdir=../meteosatlib-1.9 distdir=../meteosatlib-1.9/gdal \
     am__remove_distdir=: am__skip_length_check=: am__skip_mode_fix=: distdir)
make[2]: Entering directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib/gdal'
make[2]: Leaving directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib/gdal'
 (cd tools && make  top_distdir=../meteosatlib-1.9 distdir=../meteosatlib-1.9/tools \
     am__remove_distdir=: am__skip_length_check=: am__skip_mode_fix=: distdir)
make[2]: Entering directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib/tools'
depbase=`echo msat.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.. -I.. -I/usr/include/gdal -I/usr/include/ImageMagick-6 -fopenmp -DMAGICKCORE_HDRI_ENABLE=0 -DMAGICKCORE_QUANTUM_DEPTH=16   -Werror -g -O2  -Wall -g -O2 -MT msat.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o msat.o msat.cpp &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo image.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.. -I.. -I/usr/include/gdal -I/usr/include/ImageMagick-6 -fopenmp -DMAGICKCORE_HDRI_ENABLE=0 -DMAGICKCORE_QUANTUM_DEPTH=16   -Werror -g -O2  -Wall -g -O2 -MT image.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o image.o image.cpp &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
make[2]: *** No rule to make target '../msat/libmsat.la', needed by 'msat'.  Stop.
make[2]: Leaving directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib/tools'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:606: distdir] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/scratch/dbranchini/git/meteosatlib'
make: *** [Makefile:702: dist] Error 2