Zach Condon’s pastoral-spiritual indie sound thrives in the dark and cold.
Before the pandemic put an end to all concert tours, Zach Condon had to cancel his Beirut album GALLIPOLI due to an infection in his throat. In response to the problems with his voice, he rented a house in a place where the sun is only visible briefly in winter, otherwise cold and darkness reign in Hadsel in the very north of Norway. Its attraction was the octagonal “Kirke” with an organ from the early 19th century.
An expert from Hadsel named Oddvar got him the keys – and Zach Condon conquered the feeling that he was no match for this organ. And so the classic Beirut chords that he previously recorded on the accordion come from an organ in the title track, which gives the music greatness.
Beirut fans know the other ingredients: Condon’s multiple vocals, a clear-as-a-bell trumpet – the sound of immediate beauty. The album develops from this starting point, “Arctic Forest” beats the cold with tropical rhythms, “So Many Plans” is Americana for the region north of the Arctic Circle, “Süddeutsches Ton-Bild-Studio” is an otherworldly waltz, before the finale Rhythm of Farfsa sets the tone. The song is called “Regulatory” and that’s what Zach Condon is about on this album: re-regulating things that had been derailed.