Beirut is an artist that friends of mine discovered at the Roskilde festival 2 years ago. They all came home with their eyes looking like if they had seen an angel when they talked about the Beirut-concert. There was basically so much chatter about Beirut all summer that it took me a few months before I could really sit down and listen to it myself. And man... It's amazing.
Beirut is really Zach Condon. Apart from being incredibly cute and angle like looking ha has a passion for music and a talent for music that is just beyond almost anything.
From what I heard in an interview on Norwegian tv, he started playing one instrument and then all friends and family would give him their instrument. It all ended up in his little bedroom and it was so full of instruments that he had to take away the madras during the day and lay it down in the middle of the room at night. The result was that he every morning would step on something as he woke up and break a lot of expensive equipment.
Zac's little bedroom was in Santa Fe, New Mexico and from there he ventured into the world and found music from Eastern - Europe on the way. This results in a very exceptional mix of folk and balkan music with accordian, ukulele, tubas etc.
Zac was to tour Europe again in the summer of 2008 but had to cancel. Of what I gathered the man was just to tired to go on any more, and made a wise choice to just relax. He is now back with a double EP instead and you can read more about the current state of things here.
But more than all of the above... Zac is his voice, I think and the way he sings it, but also with such a great sense of timing and arranging. I give you three versions of my favorite song "Nantes.
First the version that is on the album:
Then two more versions of live music video things from Paris. One more improvised than the other in a way. Look at the passion for the music :)
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For further reading : Wikipedia Official Homepage
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