BEIRUT - "THE RIP TIDE"

“When I started writing music, I didn’t have peers that wanted to play what I wanted to play, that wanted to share my vision. Even though I wanted an orchestra, I was stuck with only myself. Now I have that orchestra and it would be a shame not to use it.” - Zach Condon, Beirut

When Zach Condon began writing music at 15, he never imagined that he'd share his music with a crowd of over 60,000 people. But 10 years later, that's exactly what he did when he opened for Arcade Fire at Hyde Park, which is a long ways from his New Mexico bedroom where he recorded his first album, Gulag Orkestar, roughly seven years before. 

Condon, perhaps better known by his band name, Beirut, left Sante Fe High School at 16 and at 17 joined his cousin in Europe where he was exposed to much of the Eastern-European and world music that influenced his early work. Three full-length albums and numerous EPs later, Condon's act has taken him all over the world and even inspired Beirutando in Brazil.

Beirut's third and latest album, The Rip Tide, recalls Condon's origins - hoping that his latest endeavour doesn't derrive from any particular outside influence, but rather stems from his own personal journey and story. Watch Beirut perform "East Harlem" from The Rip Tide, which is out today via Pompeii Records.

- The Music Director