Come March 2008, 21 year old wunderkind Zach Condon will be bringing his 8 piece band, Beirut, to NZ for the very first time.
Beirut's 2006 album Gulag Orkestar was one of the biggest surprise hits of recent times, innovatively combining Balkan folk music, pop melodies, & lo fi homemade psychedelic experimentation into something unquestionably & completely unique. What was even more surprising was that it was the work of someone just 19 years old. Roll forward to October 2007 & Beirut have just released their second album, the brilliant The Flying Club Cup, which, whilst losing none of it's predecessor's charms, signifies a shift, sounding this time like a love letter to French culture, again melding such diverse instrumentation as accordion, keyboards, saxophone, clarinet, mandolin, ukulele, horns, glockenspiel & percussion into an entity that still sounds remarkable, contemporary yet timeless.
Don't miss Beirut live with a full band when they tour New Zealand for the first time in March 2008.
For a taste of their live performances check out this fantastic website featuring beautiful shot clips for every song on the new record http://flyingclubcup.com/ as put together by the team behind La Blogotheque and The Take Away Shows blogs.
