New album
Melancholic album for autumn days: “Hadsel” from Beirut
Zach Condon from the band Beirut. photo
© Lina Glaisser/Pompeii Records/dpa
After health problems and a tour cancellation, Beirut singer Zach Condon fled to northern Norway. In a church he sits down at the organ and lays the foundation for “Hadsel”.
It’s every musician’s nightmare when their most important instrument suddenly breaks down. First laryngitis, then tour cancellation and ongoing problems with the throat – for Beirut frontman Zach Condon took a break from broadcasting in 2019. Four years later there is news from the US folk band. Her new album “Hadsel” will be released on November 10th.
The new record sounds melancholic and wistful as usual. Condon processes his self-doubt and health problems in it. “I was working hard on the music, lost in a trance, blindly stumbling through my own nervous breakdown that I had been repressing since I was a teenager,” says the musician.
After the tour was canceled, the Berliner by choice moved to Norway, to the small municipality of Hadsel in the north of the country, which also gives the record its name. An escape from the city to water, seclusion and lots of nature. The darkness of winter has brought him comfort before, says Condon. “Looking for the most extreme version of this, I dreamed of going into a small cabin in the dark Arctic winter where the sun never rises above the horizon.”
Quiet, exciting and unusual
The peace he was looking for is also conveyed by some of the twelve tracks on the album. In the relaxed number “Island Life” it sounds as if water is quietly rushing in the background. The purely instrumental piece “Melbu” with organ sounds also comes across as calm. But what is particularly exciting are the pieces in which Condon dares to experiment. What is particularly striking is the title “Süddeutsches Ton-Bild-Studio”, which sounds atmospheric with unusual percussion elements.
The organ runs like a common thread through the album. Sometimes played powerfully like in the opening track “Hadsel”, sometimes more gently like in “Regulatory”. According to his own words, multi-instrumentalist Condon sat at a church organ for the first time for the new album. He liked the instrument in the Norwegian wooden church and so he recorded songs there. The baritone ukulele used is also new on the album.
Despite these new instruments and more synthesizers than on the previous album “Gallipoli”, Beirut also retains its typical sound with horns that resemble fanfares and melodic singing.
With “Hadsel” Condon returns a bit to his musical beginnings. The record was made on his own and, unlike usual, he recorded it without a band. The result is an album worth listening to, with unusual arrangements and a heaviness that suits gray autumn days.