Dirty Projectors + Björk - On and Ever Onward

Domino is to release Mount Wittenberg Orca, the collaborative album from Dirty Projectors and Björk, on LP and CD for the first time on October 24th/25th.

The hand numbered, limited edition LP version will feature a deluxe three-dimensional lenticular sleeve, 180 gram heavyweight vinyl and a deluxe 12 page large-format full color booklet. A very limited number of the LPs will come with an exclusive Dirty Projectors signed photo print of the album cover when purchased from Domino.

PRE-ORDER MOUNT WITTENBERG ORCA: http://www.dominorecordco.com/mountwittenbergorca

Mount Wittenberg Orca was inspired by events on Mt. Wittenberg in Nor Cal. It pushes Longstreth's obsession with vocal harmony that figured huge on Bitte Orca. This seven-song, twenty-one minute collection is the first music the band recorded after Bitte Orca, and it feels more like a small album than an EP. It is also their most staggering collaboration yet — with the Icelandic artist Björk.

Longstreth wrote the music in 5 days in May 2009, following a conversation with Björk about the small theaters in Italy where opera was born in the 1500s. The suite was originally performed unamplified in Manhattan bookstore Housing Works the following month.

The studio recording of Mount Wittenberg Orca, made a year later in Brooklyn, (everybody's schedulez was crazy!) was informed by overall spirit of quick, first-thought-best-thought performance: the band and Björk rehearsed for 3 days at the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn, and then recorded the songs quickly and live as possible, overdubbing only lead vocals.

The result feels like part children's story, part choral music from some odd future. It's unlike anything else in the Projectors' body of work: Nat Baldwin's bass is massive and lumbering, the silhouette of some undersea creature. Drums and guitars are all but absent. It's all about voices here — and the voices are astonishing. Longstreth, sharing lead vocal duties with Björk, intones his trademark croon. The Projectors women Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle somehow bring the sexy back to 3-part melismatic contrapuntal organum. Björk sounds seismic and elemental, singing lead on half the songs.