Beirut Announce Rarities Compilation 'Artifacts,' Share New Song "Fisher Island Sound"

BY Allie GregoryPublished Oct 20, 2021

Beirut have announced Artifacts, a 26-track compilation of early works, EPs and B-sides. The new double-album will arrive digitally on January 10 and physically on March 4 via frontman Zach Condon's own Pompeii Records.

"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 of the comp, which includes recordings from as far back as when he was 14 years old, plus 17 previously-unreleased songs. 

He added: "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."

Today, they've shared a new song called "Fisher Island Sound," which was "written while staying in band member Ben Lanz's old family cottage on the coast of Connecticut, on the Fisher Island Sound," according to the frontman.

He said of the track:

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.

Hear "Fisher Island Sound" below, where you'll also find the record's tracklisting.



Artifacts:

Lon Gisland, Transatlantique, O Leãozinho
1. Elephant Gun
2. My Family's Role In The World Revolution
3. Scenic World
4. The Long Island Sound
5. Carousels
6. Transatantique
7. O Leãozinho
 
The Misfits
8. Autumn Tall Tales
9. Fyodor Dormant
10. Poisoning Claude
11. Bercy
12. Your Sails
13. Irrlichter
 
New Directions and Early Works
14. Sicily
15. Now I'm Gone
16. Napoleon On The Bellerophon
17. Interior of a Dutch House
18. Fountains and Tramways
19. Hot Air Balloon

The B-Sides
20. Fisher Island Sound
21. So Slowly
22. Die Treue zum Ursprung
23. The Crossing
24. Zagora
25. Le Phare Du Cap Bon
26. Babylon

Pre-order Artifacts here.

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