Beirut
An American indie folk project founded in Santa Fe in 2006 by Zach Condon, whose debut Gulag Orkestar, made largely at home in Albuquerque, brought Balkan brass to indie rock.
- Origin
- Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Years active
- 2006-present
- Genres
- indie folk, Balkan folk, baroque pop, world
- Labels
- Ba Da Bing, 4AD, Pompeii
Zach Condon
The band is Zach Condon, who was born on February 13, 1986 in Santa Fe, grew up there and in Newport News, Virginia, and played trumpet in a teenage jazz band. At 17 he left Santa Fe High School and travelled Europe with his brother Ryan, and later enrolled at the University of New Mexico to study Portuguese and photography. Before Beirut he made electronic music as Realpeople and, around 2002, an EP as 1971 with Alex Gaziano. The name comes from the Lebanese capital.
Gulag Orkestar was made largely alone at home in Albuquerque in 2005, with Jeremy Barnes of Neutral Milk Hotel and Heather Trost of A Hawk and a Hacksaw helping to finish it. Condon moved to Brooklyn in December 2005. The first show was early in 2006 at the College of Santa Fe, as a trio with Nick Petree and Paul Collins, and the first full-brass show was in New York in May 2006.
Records
Gulag Orkestar came out on May 9, 2006 on Ba Da Bing; Pitchfork's Brandon Stosuy called it an impressive and precocious debut. The Lon Gisland EP, Pompeii EP and Elephant Gun EP followed in 2007, along with The Flying Club Cup (October 9, 2007), which draws on French chanson and was finished at Arcade Fire's studio in Quebec; it reached number 118 on the Billboard 200 and 69 in the UK. A European tour for summer 2008 was cancelled. Condon played Letterman on February 6, 2009 and founded the label Pompeii that year.
The Rip Tide (August 30, 2011), written over six months in a winter cabin in Bethel, New York, with guests Sharon Van Etten and Trost, was followed by No No No (September 11, 2015), Gallipoli (February 1, 2019), Artifacts (January 28, 2022), Hadsel (November 10, 2023), named for a Norwegian island Condon visited in 2020, and A Study of Losses (April 18, 2025), 18 songs written for the Swedish circus Kompani Giraff. Condon has also guested with Grizzly Bear, the New Pornographers and Blondie.
Members
- Zach Condon vocals, trumpet, flugelhorn, ukulele (2006-present)
- Nick Petree drums, percussion, melodica
- Paul Collins bass
- Kyle Resnick trumpet
- Ben Lanz trombone, sousaphone, glockenspiel
- Aaron Arntz piano, keyboards
- Jeremy Barnes percussion, accordion
- Heather Trost violin, viola
Records
- Gulag Orkestar 2006 · Ba Da Bing
The debut, all songs by Condon, made largely at home with help from Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost.
Songs
- Postcards from Italy Gulag Orkestar · 2006
Track four on Gulag Orkestar, written by Zach Condon and recorded in Albuquerque in 2005.
Related artists
St. Vincent, The Felice Brothers
Where to go next
Official
- Beirut The band's site.
Reference
- Beirut on Wikipedia History and line-up.
- The Flying Club Cup on Wikipedia The second album.
- The Rip Tide on Wikipedia The third album.
Sources
- Beirut (band), Wikipedia
- Gulag Orkestar, Wikipedia
- The Flying Club Cup, Wikipedia
- The Rip Tide, Wikipedia