Vibrato-voiced folk superstar Zach Condon and his Beirut vehicle are plotting the release of a new record, in the midst of which Condon is keeping very busy juggling a number of other interesting projects.
First of all, Condon told HitFix that a new record, currently without a title, is set to come out “some time this [American] summer”. He added that the new songs are “sunny. I write sad songs when it’s nice outside. I write warm and happy songs when I’m up to my neck in snow for three months.”
Condon wrote the album whilst holed up in during the past, rather unpleasant by all reports, winter in upstate New York. The new material may see Beirut approach a new direction, with Condon saying, “I always felt like a dilettante, instrumentally. This time, I felt much more drawn to a classical brass arrangement approach and I worked a lot more on my piano chops.”
Second of all, as Pitchfork notes, Condon gave a cover of a Caetano Veloso song to a new benefit album, Red Hot + Rio, with proceeds going to the AIDS charity the Red Hot Organisation. In addition to that, Condon has composed new music for the score of the documentary, Bombay Beach, a film about small-town California that is a “portrait of this small community living on the fringes of the lost American dream, and the dreamers who populate its surreal and poetic landscape.”
Beirut will soon embark on a big tour, including dates with Arcade Fire, The National and Twin Sister.
