In 2011, Dirty Projectors and Björk released one of my favourite albums of all time, Mount Wittenberg Orca. The album makes use of experimental vocal chops and effects to deliver some emotions and sounds that I have never heard anything like before or since. One of my favourite songs on the album is called ‘No Embrace’. In this track, Dirty Projectors and Björk use incredibly stripped back production and writing with precise execution to create a palette of sound that is both minimalistic and refreshing.
The song features Björk’s soft background vocals as the main foundation of the song. Underneath this, we can hear bass guitar, quiet drums and some electric guitar, however these are all used to accent and uplift what is going on vocally.
As a producer and a songwriter, when it comes to me writing lyrics I tend to focus on the sound of the vowels and feeling of the melody before I even think about the words. I usually record mumbles and vocal sounds and then write words to fit that. This process works for me because often times I feel that the most authentic expression comes through these vague gestures of emotion as supposed to meticulously detailed lyrics – this is why I love bands like Cocteau Twins. On the song ‘No Embrace’, Björk provides a perfect exhibit of this theory. Throughout the track, Björk sings these warm, beautiful ‘Oo’ sound vowels that the lead singer, David Longstreth, sings over. These Oo’s make you feel as if you’re floating gently above the clouds. When the chorus comes, however, the song opens up in to this explosion in which Björk sings with ‘Aa’ vowels instead – the clouds have parted. Though this seems simple, the difference between the Oo and the Aa sound is so vast and the emotional colours expressed from this switch up are astonishing. The open vowels create a liberated and explosive feeling, where as the closed ones create a warm and closed environment. This album as a whole is a perfect example of how writing is about more than just lyrics and that the vocal can be used as an instrument.