Beirut

BIOGRAPHY

Beirut is the recording project of Zach Condon, born February 13, 1986, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and raised between Newport News, Virginia, and Santa Fe. A teenage jazz trumpeter drawn to Fellini soundtracks, Sicilian funeral brass, and Balkan folk after a stint working at a cinema, Condon formed Beirut in 2006, naming it after Lebanon's capital as a symbol of cultural collision. His debut, Gulag Orkestar, recorded largely alone before being finished with Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost, drew rapid critical attention, including praise from Pitchfork. Since then Beirut has released seven studio albums and four EPs, moving through French chanson on The Flying Club Cup, Oaxacan brass and home electronics on the March of the Zapotec/Holland double EP, and Balkan-inflected songwriting on No No No and Gallipoli. The sixth album, Hadsel, arrived in 2023 on the band's own Pompeii Records to strong reviews, and Condon returned in 2025 with A Study of Losses, written for a Swedish circus production.

WHY THEY'RE COOL

Beirut's appeal lies in Zach Condon's restless, self-taught musicianship, an artist who folded jazz trumpet, Balkan brass, French chanson, and Mexican brass-band tradition into a distinctly wandering strain of indie folk. From a bedroom recording that became Gulag Orkestar to collaborations with a 19-piece Oaxacan ensemble and a commissioned circus score decades later, Beirut's catalog reads like a travelogue of global sound. Sustained critical attention, from Pitchfork reviews to chart entries on the Billboard 200, underscores a body of work that keeps evolving while staying recognizably its own.

GEORGE'S PLAYS

First time on the station.

PLAYED ON WOKE1

• Elephant Gun1 PLAY