For fans of quirky art pop, collaborations don't get much better than this: Brooklyn experimentalists Dirty Projectors have teamed up with Icelandic oddball Björk for an EP entitled Mount Wittenberg Orca, which is due out next Wednesday (June 30).
The two acts first unveiled Mount Wittenberg Orca at a Housing Works benefit show last May. At the time, Dirty Projectors mastermind David Longstreth told Stereogum that the seven-song, 20-minute album "is about a day three weeks ago that [band-mate] Amber Coffman was in Northern California watching whales from a mountain called Mount Wittenberg. The six songs are imagining the moment Amber saw this whale, and the whale saw her."
In Longstreth's recreation, Björk sings the part of the mom whale, while Dirty Projectors singers Coffman, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle play the baby whales. Longstreth sings the part of Amber (that is, the human observer).
The songs were recorded over two days this spring in Brooklyn's Rare Book Room Studio. Almost all of them were recorded live, with only lead vocals and a guitar solo overdubbed after. Mount Wittenberg Orca will cost you $7 to download and you can pre-order it here. All proceeds from this digital-only release go to the National Geographic Society.
You can see some brief teaser clips for the album on Dirty Projectors' YouTube channel. One of them is embedded below.
Mount Wittenberg Orca:
1. "Ocean"
2. "On and Ever Onward"
2. "When the World Comes to an End"
4. "Beautiful Mother"
5. "Sharing Orb"
6. "No Embrace"
7. "All We Are"
The two acts first unveiled Mount Wittenberg Orca at a Housing Works benefit show last May. At the time, Dirty Projectors mastermind David Longstreth told Stereogum that the seven-song, 20-minute album "is about a day three weeks ago that [band-mate] Amber Coffman was in Northern California watching whales from a mountain called Mount Wittenberg. The six songs are imagining the moment Amber saw this whale, and the whale saw her."
In Longstreth's recreation, Björk sings the part of the mom whale, while Dirty Projectors singers Coffman, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle play the baby whales. Longstreth sings the part of Amber (that is, the human observer).
The songs were recorded over two days this spring in Brooklyn's Rare Book Room Studio. Almost all of them were recorded live, with only lead vocals and a guitar solo overdubbed after. Mount Wittenberg Orca will cost you $7 to download and you can pre-order it here. All proceeds from this digital-only release go to the National Geographic Society.
You can see some brief teaser clips for the album on Dirty Projectors' YouTube channel. One of them is embedded below.
Mount Wittenberg Orca:
1. "Ocean"
2. "On and Ever Onward"
2. "When the World Comes to an End"
4. "Beautiful Mother"
5. "Sharing Orb"
6. "No Embrace"
7. "All We Are"
