On Saturday, Dirty Projectors and Björk will release, Mount Wittenberg Orca (Expanded Edition), as a Record Store Day exclusive. A live recording of “On And Ever Onward,” one of several previously unreleased tracks included on the pending double-LP, has been shared in advance of being available for RSD.
The original Mount Wittenberg Orca EP came out in 2010. After three days of rehearsals, the EP was recorded live with Nicolas Vernhes at Brooklyn’s Rare Book Room, limiting overdubs to solos and lead vocals.
The project was born out of a conversation Dirty Projectors principal member David Longstreth had with Björk about intimate theaters built in the 1500s in Italy that housed the first operas. Initially, the intent was to perform the seven-song suite without amplification at the Housing Works bookstore in New York City, which occurred in 2009.
A recording of that performance (featuring Björk, Longstreth and one-time Dirty Projectors members Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle), as well as demos and rehearsal tracks are part of the Mount Wittenberg Orca (Expanded Edition). Regarding the work, Longstreth stated:
“Mount Wittenberg Orca might be my favorite thing from this chapter of Dirty Projectors. It feels like sort of a dark horse in the catalog. Which I guess is kinda funny, considering it’s a collaborative record with Björk. We were overwhelmed with the hype around the band at the time and purposely under-messaged it. But I love these songs. And as a basically live-in-studio album, it’s the only official release that shows how this lineup really cooked as a band. The performances and engineering hold up really well. And of course Björk elevates us to a different level of protean majesty. I remember being spontaneously in tears during her vocal takes for ‘Sharing Orb.’ I’m also excited to share the original Housing Works show, in its raw beauty, as well as the writing tapes and rehearsals that show how the whole thing came together. Thanks for listening.”
Limited to 1,500 copies, Mount Wittenberg Orca (Expanded Edition) will be available at select independent record stores this Saturday, April 22. Stream Björk and Dirty Projectors performing “On And Ever Onward” below:
