Following up on last week’s announcement of a studio-recorded iteration of the unlikely collaboration between Dirty Projectors and Björk — initiated by DPs cover of “Hyperballad” for our tribute to Björk’s Post and brought to fruition by Brandon’s facilitating an unforgettable evening at Housing Works bookstore — this morning you can purchase the Dave Longstreth’s seven-song suite, recorded by his band and the Icelandic icon at Rare Book Room Studios in Greenpoint, at mountwittenbergorca.com. The minimum donation is $7, though you can go as high as $100; all proceeds benefit the National Geographic Society Oceans Project, a charitable initiative close to the marine themes at the piece’s heart, and an unfortunately prescient one at that.
The site just launched this morning, so we can listen and log thoughts together. (That’s always fun.) Brandon and I did sit with the band and listen through to the album at Rare Book Room last week — it’s well worth a dollar a song, if you’re wondering. Dave echoed his sentiment from a Q&A we had after the Housing Works performance that Mount Wittenberg Orca is, essentially, Bitte Orca’s “younger, hotter sister”: the “Orca” ties the two pieces, as do the emphasis on vocal harmony — in many ways, Mount Wittenberg expands and elevates the hocketed harmonic devices Bitte brought forth. Guitar and drums are marginalized, creating space for the voices, which is a smart thing to do if you have Björk in the studio. The arrangements and lyrics Longstreth initially created — written in a week, performed a week later at Housing Works — were tweaked minimally. (Only the opening movement was reworked in any detailed way.) The idea was to capture an “instinctive thrust,” and this mini-album’s recording process — ’50s mics and recorded live in first and second takes (inspired by the spacious warmth of Elvis Presley recordings) with overdubs only for lead vocals and solos — reflects that.
Our interview gives a lot more background on the piece and process, as does Dave’s letter describing the project (reprinted below), but if you want a taste before saving the oceans/your eardrums by purchasing this 21-minute beauty, there’s this performance on Fallon, and below there’s a stream of the suite’s denouement, titled “All We Are,” which has a closing phrase that not only brings Dave and Björk together, but puts them in harmony with Kurt Cobain. More on that after you listen.
