Beirut

Beirut play Field Day as a UK Festival exclusive.

Beirut was created in a typical teenager’s New Mexico bedroom.  Zach Condon recorded Gulag Orkestar shortly after quitting college, with some help from local musicians Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw). For him, it was nothing new, having recorded hundreds of songs since he was fifteen the same way. This time, however, a flood of attention followed, as online raves lead to reverential fandom, international acclaim, and a tsunami of interviews, photoshoots and features. This was only the beginning.

The band recorded multiple albums to follow including 2007′s The Flying Club Cup which is an homage to France’s culture, fashion, history and music. In 2009, Beirut released the double EP March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland. The first was partly recorded in Oaxaca with the Mexican Banda Jimenez, and a more pronounced South-American flavor. The second EP Holland was credited to Condon.

Summer 2011 saw the release of The Rip Tide. Written in isolation during a snowy upstate winter, the album marked a stark change in emotional direction, that is to say, inward. Reflecting less on the travels and travails borne of the wanderlust struck musician, instead, The Rip Tide has crystallized the sounds of Beirut’s past into a cohesive and remarkable whole, all while maintaining the unmistakable aesthetic that has brought them around the world, and home again.

Recent live endeavours have seen Beirut play stunning venues such as Sydney Opera House, Hyde Park, and headline their biggest London show to date at Brixton Academy.

Make sure you don’t miss their only 2012 UK festival performance at Field Day.