In April 2009, Brandon Stosuy from Stereogum.com asked Dave Longstreth, frontman of Dirty Projectors if they wanted to play a benefit concert at a bookstore in New York. They said yes. He asked Björk the same thing, and she said yes. Then he asked them if they wanted to collaborate, and they said yes. Björk asked Dave what they should do, and he 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. Dave 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 Dave sang the part of Amber.
Mount Wittenberg Orca was released on June 30. All the money that it generates goes to the project of creating international marine protected areas. |
