MOUNT WITTENBERG ORCA, DIRTY PROJECTORS + BJORK 06.30.2010

Dirty Projectors and Björk will be releasing a collaboration entitled Mount Wittenberg Orca on Wednesday the 30th of June. The collaborative suite debuted in May 2009 and this April Björk and Dirty Projectors entered Brooklyn's Rare Book Room studio and recorded an updated version of Mount Wittenberg Orca.

The 20-minute, seven-track piece was written by Dave Longstreth. Money raised from the release will be donated to the National Geographic Society.

You can pre-order it here.

Below is a letter from Dave explaining how the collaboration came together.

"In April 2009, Brandon Stosuy from Stereogum.com asked me if we wanted to play a benefit concert at a bookstore in New York. I said yes. He asked Björk the same thing, and she said yes. Then he asked us if we wanted to collaborate, and we said yes. Björk asked me what we should do, and I said, 'I don’t know, I guess I’d really love to write a bunch of new songs for us to sing together?' And she said Yes.

That same month, Amber from Dirty Projectors was walking along a ridge on Mount Wittenberg, north of San Francisco. She was looking out at the ocean and saw a little family of whales, as you sometimes do in April on the Northern California coast. I wrote some songs about it and sent them to Björk, who agreed to sing the part of the mom whale. The songs became Mount Wittenberg Orca. Amber and Angel and Haley sang the part of the kid whales, and I sang the part of Amber. We sang all week long and learned the music just in time to perform it at the bookstore on May 8th.

Then our album Bitte Orca came out and we went on tour forever. We finally got a chance to record Wittenberg last month, almost exactly a year after we first sang it. We went into the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn and rehearsed it for three days, then we recorded it as quickly and as live as possible. We only overdubbed lead vocals and a guitar solo.

Now we’re making a website for it, which will be the only place you can buy it. It’s going be up June 30th (we are playing in Utrecht that day!) The music is going to be $7, because there are seven songs. You can preorder now if you click here.

We’ve decided to give away all the money that Wittenberg generates to the project of creating international marine protected areas. Only 1% of the oceans are protected in any way and this is a huge problem. We’re working with the National Geographic Society to create areas of sustainability, so the oceans don’t end up like a giant poisonous corpse hugging the continents. You can learn more about this project here and here  and here  and here.

We’re so psyched about how this recording came out and hope you are too. Don’t listen on those tinny computer speakers — put in on the stereo and blast dat shiiiiiiiiii!!

Enjoy.
–David"