Gulag Orkestar: Special Edition

"Precocious, other-worldly and vividly ambitious."
- Drowned In Sound

"Beautiful and disarming."
- Pitchfork

"This is serious music for serious listeners."
- Billboard

Zach Condon, aka Beirut, is a 20-year-old solo artist who's D.I.Y., bedroom produced music sounds like the glorious dance of a 12-piece Balkan gypsy orchestra, and 'Gulag Orkestar' is his exceptional debut album.

'Gulag Orkestar' swirls and sways with a procession of horns, violins, cellos, ukuleles, mandolins, glockenspiels, drums, tambourines, congas, organs, pianos, clarinets and accordions, a wonderfully brash, drunken sound which whirls around Zach's histrionic and bewitchingly plaintive vocals.

In texture and sound 'Gulag Orkestar' possesses the soul of Eastern Europe, an influence born from Zach's travels, as an inquisitive 16yr old, leaving native Albuquerque, New Mexico, and heading to Paris to cavort and party with the locals. A lifestyle that led him to the intoxicating sounds of a group of Serbian artists blasting from an upstairs apartment.

Intrigued, Zach ventured upstairs, perusing albums from an array of weird and wonderful countries and learning them note for note - a night which directly led to the creation of 'Gulag Orkestar'.

'Gulag Orkestar' was mostly recorded on pro-tools in Albuquerque, time out of school spent wisely. Then in Winter '05, Zach relocated to Brooklyn and was joined, at Park Slope's Sea Side Studios, by Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost [of Neutral Milk Hotel and A Hawk and A Hacksaw] who added percussion [over parts initially covered by a drum machine] and beautiful violin overlays, creating a glorious sweep of music, both emotional and astounding in its musical feats.

From the lush trumpet, rhythmically plucked ukulele and somersaulting, emotive croon of 'Postcards From Italy', through to the bustling ghetto sound of 'Bratislava', 'Gulag Orkestar' is a brave and passionate global mélange full of energy, beauty and mystery.

Gulag Orkestar' is released with a special bonus CD in the form of Beirut's follow-up EP 'Lon Gisland', a record that develops further the wealth of ideas displayed on 'Gulag Orkestar', and offers further proof of Beirut's inspiring talent.