Beirut

Postcards From A Forgotten World

words by Ryan Ffrench
photos by Randy Cremean

Paris, France— circa 1900.

Hot air balloons line the cobblestone streets, preparing to dazzle the crowded salons with the majestic size and opulent colors that boldly announce the grandeur of the World’s Fair. The era of art nouveau has arrived. The Flying Club Cup is about to begin. A wide-eyed young photographer named Leon Gimpel captures the extravagance of the scene in what is one of the first known experiments in auto-chrome color photography. The Fair passes, but the photo remains.

Over a century later, Zach Condon, the lead singer-songwriter of Beirut, stumbles upon Gimpel’s time-damaged image and, thinking of his new album, knows instinctively: it has got to sound the way that looks. A year later, and Beirut’s sophomore album, The Flying Club Cup is released on Ba Da Bing Records.