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Hadsel

by Beirut

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1.
Hadsel 04:54
Take tonight to your bones lay me down my oar I can drown ‘into your arms ‘lay ashore Take tonight to your bones lay me down my oar I am drawn ‘to your arms left ashore Take tonight to your bones lay me down my horn Love to say I long to get away love to carry round lesser days so she drives the car X2
2.
(No lyrics)
3.
Baion 04:06
It waits for no soul it’s too late in the cold it rains listen now hang your tools and lay down Oh since you’ve gone I don’t know what’s gone wrong I wait in the bed... near the stairs... in my head and I, full of scorn laid you down on my thorns I wish to be gone I bite hard on my tongue (2nd verse no lyrics)
4.
And we had so many plans leap from the sills, see where we land we had so many plans safe from the wind, head in the sand We had so many friends this had to end, they had to end we had so many friends maybe we’ll see them again We said so long, we sat alone, we sat along... we said it all, we said it low we said it all.... We had so many plans this had to end, this had to end we had so many friends this had to end this had to end
5.
Melbu 02:20
(Instrumental)
6.
Stokmarknes 04:10
At least sit up let me fill your cup been waiting for what’s left to come unstuck You’re empty you are full who knew it could be so... you’re empty you are full who knows what we’re in for… what moves in the dark who were we to start...? the room is so old I’ve been here before I’m empty I am full who knows what we’re here for I’m empty I am full who knows what we’re here for...
7.
Island Life 04:08
So don’t drive through town so slow that is something you don’t want to see without snow I can find somewhere to go I’ll empty out my home everything has to go... I’ll empty out my home everything has to go tried to find somewhere you know tried to find somewhere to go tried to find somewhere you know? tried to find somewhere to go
8.
Spillhaugen 03:41
It was wild-eyed, and a long time, long time lost to time.... (Repeated till end)
9.
January 18th 03:41
Round this day you are on my mind sent home to rest from the awful trials being now off the ride a canopy is resting over my eyes Oh turn it bright! Oh turn it bright!
10.
I can’t believe a thing I say uptown to stay, for the other way I can’t believe a thing I said I can’t bleed another way I can’t be easy now I can’t believe me now I can’t be easy now I can’t be easy now.... I can’t believe a thing I say… I can’t be easy now I can’t believe it now I can’t be easy now, I can’t be easy now
11.
The Tern 04:14
Now It’s not so easy I not so easy I... not so easy I Oh, not so easy I not so easy I not so easy I No. It’s not too late to find where you are it’s not too late to find where you are it’s not too late to find.... Say not so easy I it’s not so easy I... not so easy I Oh, you’re not too late to find who you are you’re not too late to find who you are you’re not too late to find.... Oh, you’re not too late to find who you are you’re not too late to find who you are you’re not too late find… But oh, I’m not so easy I.. I’m not so easy I... not so easy I....
12.
Regulatory 03:18
And they sold to midnight and I was lost mid flight I know (I) belong to midnight I know I belong to this...that… (No lyrics) the old lies are born again the old life is born again...

about

“After the fiasco of having to cancel large parts of the tours in 2019 I was looking for a place to recover. I had started that year full of optimism, hoping that I had made enough changes to my life to handle the road this time. In the end my own body, through persistent throat issues, had proven me wrong. I was left in a state of shock and severe self-doubt, feeling like I had let down not only thousands of fans but also my band and myself.
I began to question if my voice would ever fully recover, or if I would even be able to play shows again and what that meant for my career. I just wanted to escape.
The darkness of winter had always been a solace to me in times past. Seeking the most extreme version of that, I dreamt of going to a small cabin in the dark arctic winter where the sun never rises above the horizon.

In the first days of 2020, I arrived on Hadsel, an island in the middle of Vesterålen, far up in the northern part of Norway. The cabin I rented had a beautiful view of the mountains and water but my personal highlight was that it came complete with a pump organ on “infinite“ loan from an organ-loving neighbor. This unique instrument is what had inspired me to bring my studio with me, a nightmare transit process that I was too stubborn to avoid. Besides the usual recording equipment, a set of small monitors, an old portable Austrian tape machine, my ever-present trumpet, and some winter clothes, I decided to also take two large rigs of modular synthesizers complete with a midi keyboard controller with me. In the years prior I had been teaching myself how to navigate these old analog machines which had become a new obsession of mine. This amounted to about five or six overweight suitcases in total. How I thought of this as a form of retreat and rejuvenation I will never know. I believe at this point my friends and family were convinced I had lost my mind, or would do so in the polar night.

In my time there I became friends with some of the families who lived in the nearby houses and was introduced to the fellow organ-enthusiast and collector named Oddvar. Being one of the stand-in organists, he was able to give me access to the local church down the road. So it was in Hadselkirke, a beautiful octagonal wood construction from the early 1800s, where for the first time in my life I sat at the keys of a real church organ. For the following two months I would come and go from the church with my microphones and tape machine, working out songs through the dark and snowy nights.

I worked hard on the music, lost in a trance and stumbling blindly through my own mental collapse that I had been pushing aside since I was a teenager. It came and rang me like a bell. I was left agonising many things past and present while the beauty of the nature, the northern lights and fearsome storms played an awesome show around me. The few hours of light would expose the unfathomable beauty of the mountains and the fjords, and the hours-long twilights would fill me with subdued excitement. I’d like to believe that scenery is somehow present in the music.

By the time I returned to Berlin the world closed down on itself for covid lockdowns. To me that was simply an invitation to hunker down in my attic studio / apartment in Lichtenberg to finish what I started in Norway. I rediscovered the baritone uke, an instrument I had bought but never really used before, as a perfect accompaniment for the warm pump organ drones. Now finally having a proper studio space again, I had my French horn along with other instruments shipped out from storage in New York to add to the sound. And that’s when HADSEL started to take shape. Where I normally may have called on the band for help fleshing out the songs, I instead decided on returning to the DIY approach of my first record, layering hand drums and shakers on top of old drum machines and the strange synth percussion sounds I had created in Norway. I determined a course of self-reliance to be best, partly due to covid’s interference in travel, and partly to prove to myself I could somehow manage on my own again.”

-Zach C., Berlin 2023

credits

released November 10, 2023

All songs written, performed and recorded by Zach Condon in Hadsel, Norway and Berlin, Germany. Mixed by Zach Condon in Berlin and Craig Silvey at Toast Studios London. Mastered by Francesco Donadello at Calyx in Berlin. Artwork, photography and design by Lina Gaißer.

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