Beirut (Zach Condon) released the previously unreleased outtake, “So Slowly.” The song appears on the forthcoming archival compilation album, Artifacts.
The 26-track collection will be released digitally on January 28 and physically on March 4 via Condon’s Pompeii Records. The compilation is described as “a double-LP’s worth of music that traces the evolution of Beirut from a 14-year old Condon’s first attempts at bringing the music he heard in his mind to life, to the fully formed Beirut we know today.”
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Beirut Details ‘Artifacts’ Compilation & Shares Previously Unreleased Track
Beirut’s Zach Condon detailed an archival collection, ‘Artifacts,’ and shared a previously unreleased track.
The set is made up of tracks culled from initial Beirut EPs and other early works, singles and additional rarities and B-Sides, including the previously shared “Fisher Island Sound” and “So Slowly.” Describing “So Slowly,” Condon stated:
“I had a few years where all I wanted to play was the Wurlitzer for some reason. I actually first wrote this song on a white baby grand piano that was surprisingly cheap. Apparently, white pianos lost their popularity as a status symbol in the thick carpeted living rooms of the ‘70s. I was particularly proud of the conch shell ‘brass section’ I arranged behind the first vocal parts, using a self-made horn from a huge conch shell my parents had picked up in Key West when they were still young and wild, before me and my brothers were born.
“After I dropped out of high school, I began work at a local frame shop building antique gilded frames for all the galleries in town. And when I found out how the shells, along with human femur bones, were used as early brass instruments, I took it to the frame shop to consider how to make it playable. In a moment of inspiration and impulsivity, I proceeded to belt sand off the end of the shell, then drimmeled out the rough shape of a trumpet mouthpiece into the spiraled opening. It worked out better than I had imagined. I had used the shell for the opening piece of ‘The Flying Club Cup’ already, but decided to take it to the next level on this song, letting out every sound I could conceive of it making and stacking it up to resemble rough harmonies. Nick Petree held down the rhythm section beautifully and we traded off on hand drum parts like proper Santa Fe hippies. I’d like to think this may be the first song to contain melodies done on both a prepared piano and a conch shell. I never knew where to place this song until now.”
Stream Beirut’s previously unreleased B-Side “So Slowly” below:
