Björk and the Dirty Projectors- Mount Wittenburg Orca

A charity driven album where Björk plays a mumma whale, David Longstreth takes on the part of Amber from the Dirty Projectors and The Dirty Projectors play the parts of baby whales is going to seem challenging, but you wouldn’t expect anything but that from th

is ensemble, which is why I was pleasantly surprised.
It is true “Eeeeeeeaeeaeaeaeaeeaeaeaeeahhhh” is the main word used by the Dirty Projectors on this record with their strangely beautiful abrasive off key harmonies and oddly syncopated timing. The first track ‘Ocean’ consists entirely of that sound in fact, but if you can get away from the off colour sound it actually flows beautifully into the creative vocal techniques of the group and by track two ‘On and Ever Downward’ Björk’s vocals are of a blissfully smooth timbre floating over and through their rhythms.

Mount Wittenburg Orca has some beautiful landscape in its sounds and mixed with the live recording (only lead vocals and one guitar solo were overdubbed) an oddly clear sonic quality cuts through the usual thoughts of weirdness associated with Björk and leaves a more simplistic and pure sound to the seven tracks. ‘Beautiful Mother’ is a particularly sweet track featuring the whale calves singing to their mother. The political message of the album is not lost with ‘Sharing Orb’ lyrically and sonically ripping through the problems of human pollution that face the ocean through a whale’s storytelling voice.

The whole package is lovely but powerful enough to push a message through its soundscapes and prose; which brings us to the charity aspect, all money from the album goes towards the National Geographic Society’s project to help create international marine protected areas. We could have clarified this first, but we think the music speaks loudly enough, so get it, listen to it, and then feel good about contributing to the whales by listening to Björk pretending to be one.

By Alex McIntyre