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Nov 17, 2021 By Joey Arnone Photography by Lina Gaisser

Beirut (aka Zach Condon and his band) has shared a previously unreleased song, “So Slowly.” It is the latest song to be released from Condon’s upcoming compilation album, Artifacts, a collection of never-before-heard recordings, which will be out on January 28, 2022 via Pompeii. Listen to “So Slowly” below.

Condon elaborates on the song in a press release: “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.”

He continues, “After I dropped out of highschool, 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.”

Condon previously shared the song “Fisher Island Blues” upon announcing Artifacts last month, and it was one of our Songs of the Week.

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