Back in 2019, Zach Condon—who performs under the name Beirut—canceled the remaining dates of his band’s international tour due to an ongoing battle with acute laryngitis. It was not the first time that health issues had led to Condon ending a tour early, but it had a profound effect on the musician; he “fled” by himself to Hadsel, a municipality in the northern reaches of Norway. Here he would begin work on his sixth album, returning to his solo, multi-instrumentalist roots and self-producing a record that seems a full-circle nod to his earliest Balkan-meets-Baroque work: rich, earthy and at times almost liturgic. Now based in Berlin, 38-year-old Condon reflects on his career, his health and his new record, Hadsel. 

Tara Joshi: Your career began almost two decades ago. Did yo...