Dirty Projectors + Björk / MOUNT WITTENBERG ORCA (RSD23)

It’s unlike anything else in the Projectors’ body of work: drums and guitars are all but absent. It’s all about voices here — and the voices are astonishing. Björk sounds seismic and elemental and Longstreth, sharing lead vocal duties, intones with his trademark croon. The Projectors’ singers Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle add magical 3-part vocal harmonies. The recording was informed by the simple, direct feel of early rock and roll recordings from the ’50s. The band and Björk rehearsed for three days at the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn, and then recorded the songs as quickly and as live as possible, overdubbing only lead vocals and solos. The 2xLP Expanded Edition adds 13 bonus tracks of never-before-released material including the live Housing Works performance from 2009, early demos of Mount Wittenberg Orca and archival audio of the band and Bjork rehearsing the material.