The double album compiles unreleased tracks, early works, EPs, and B-sides
Beirut have announced a new double album compiling unreleased tracks, early works, EPs, and B-sides. The collection is called Artifacts, and it arrives January 28 via frontman Zach Condon’s own Pompeii Records. Today, Beirut have shared the never-before-released track “Fisher Island Sound.” Hear it below.
Artifacts documents the evolution of Beirut, and includes some of Condon’s earliest recordings at age 14, as well as tracks from throughout the group’s catalog. “When the decision came to re-release this collection, I found myself digging through hard drives looking for something extra to add to the compilation,” Condon said in the liner notes for Artifacts. “What started as a few extra unreleased tracks from my formative recording years quickly grew into an entire extra records-worth of music from my past, and a larger project of remixing and remastering everything I found for good measure.”
Of the newly-released track “Fisher Island Sound,” Condon added:
This song was written while staying in band member Ben Lanz’s old family cottage on the coast of Connecticut, on the Fisher Island Sound. I played with the lines for years before trying to record versions of it in Brooklyn with the band. Perrin Cloutier had taught himself how to play a new button accordion beautifully, and the band was really sounding their best. I however, struggled in those years to put vocals on the songs and ended up scrapping a lot of the music from that era in this part of the collection due to fear, stress and self-doubt. I’ve come to rediscover some of these old songs in a different light since then, but they do remain a heavy reminder of unsteady times.
Beirut’s most recent studio album Gallipoli came out in 2019.
