Beirut have announced a new double LP called Artifacts, which will compile unreleased tracks, early works, EPs, and B-sides tracing the project’s evolution. It’s set for release on January 28 via frontman Zach Condon’s own Pompeii Records. Check out the previously unreleased track ‘Fisher Island Sound’ below.
“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 explains in the album’s liner notes. “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 ‘Fisher Island Sound’, he 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 last album, Gallipoli, was released in 2019.
Artifacts Cover Artwork:
