Beirut To Hit The Road In 2025 For 1st Tour In 6 Years, Drops New Single ‘Caspian Tiger’

A new chapter for Beirut continues today as Zach Condon accompanied news of his first tour since 2019 with the release of the gorgeous new single “Caspian Tiger.” Condon will bring the project back to the stage for a five-show swing through Europe and the UK in May.

“Caspian Tiger” arrives on the heels of the 2023 Beirut album, Hadsel. Zach Condon celebrated the latest Beirut LP with a series three sold-out shows in Berlin this past February, which marked the projects first shows since persistent throat issues forced the project off the road in 2019.

Beirut opens the brief tour on May 1 and 2 with a two-night stand at TivoliVrendenburg – Grote Zaal in Utrecht, Netherlands. Next, Condon & Co. play Brussels’ Cirque Royal on May 5 and 6. A concert on May 8 at London’s O2 Academy Brixton brings the tour to a close.

Pre-sales for each of the new dates start on Monday, November 18 at 10 a.m. GMT. Tickets then go on sale to the general public on Thursday, November 21 at 10 a.m. GMT.

Exploring themes of disappearance, preservation, and the fleeting nature of all things, “Caspian Tiger” forms part of the soundtrack Zach Condon composed for the international touring production A Study of Losses by the Swedish contemporary circus company Kompani Giraff. This stage performance offers an open interpretation of German author Judith Schalansky’s novel Verzeichnis einiger Verluste.

In “Caspian Tiger,” Condon delves back into his early fascinations with choir, Renaissance, and early music traditions that have long influenced his sound. Beginning with a lone piano, the song gradually unfolds into a sublime blend of voices and instruments, with soaring harmonies resonating over a melancholy yet stirring melodic motif.

Zach Condon shared the following in regards to “Caspian Tiger”:

“When I was first approached about writing a soundtrack for a circus, a certain amount of ‘Elephant Gun’ era trauma initially came rushing up. I had been pigeon-holed for years as a whimsical circus waif, full of sepia-toned images of penny farthings and perhaps lion tamers with handlebar moustaches. It couldn’t have been further from how I pictured the music I was making. I had been quietly avoiding the subject for years.

Ironic then, that I found Kompani Giraff’s project so enticing, and writing something for acrobats to perform so enjoyable. ‘Caspian Tiger’ was one of the first songs I wrote for the new album, with images in mind of the poor animals caged or fighting in Roman colosseums. They had been taken from the Asian steppes around the Caspian Sea and from as far east as Tashkent, an area I’ve been fascinated by for years. The sonic influence came in large part from choir music that I was obsessing over at the time.

Perhaps I subconsciously aimed to embrace and even improve on the imagery I had been originally written off for.”

Watch Beirut’s “Caspian Tiger” video below featuring choreography from A Study of Losses: