The Underground of Happiness

More good news. One of my favourite releases of last year is finally getting the physical treatment on Domino . Details here . This is what I thought of it at the time. Dirty Projectors + Bjork - Mount Wittenberg Orca (http://www.mountwittenbergorca.com/, donation download) Stunning collaboration with proceeds to the National Geographic Society project to create international marine protected areas (payment is by donation), and recorded live, for the most part, in The Rare Book Room bookshop in New York . David Longstreth informs that the idea stemmed from a whale sighting by DP's Amber Coffman from a ridge in California (Mount Wittenberg). Bjork sings the part of the mother whale, Amber, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle the kid whales and Mr Longstreth the part of Amber (!). Overall sound a little reminiscient of Ennio Morricone in places (which we love around here) - the glorious build-up of closer All we are , for example, with its vocal stylings and counterpoints (only a ...

A few months late with this, but there are some things so special you won't mind waiting. Julianna Barwick - The magic place (Asthmatic Kitty) From the opening strains of Envelop , with multiple wordless, heavily treated vocal parts creating texture as well as melody, you know you're in the presence of something special here. By the end of that track, as a distressed piano line gradually swamps the vocals, a haunting, heartrending mood has taken over from the initial bliss. The title track is a choral symphony which slowly disintegrates into a lone soprano. Cloak sounds for all the world like a line from a church hymn sampled and looped, until its layers gather a power not witnessed in any church I've ever been in. White flag creates the effect of standing at the mid-point of three competing choirs, which somehow manage to complement each other. You could quibble that a sameness sets in midway through the album which might have been broken by the use of more percussion...