Orkestar

The music ranges from the swing-guitar jazz of Django Reinhardt to the rumba flamenca of the Gipsy Kings to the Balkan brass of Boban Marković Orkestar to the electrifying live shows of Taraf de Haïdouks, the renowned traditional Romanian wedding band.

Accompanying Wanderers at Heart Tad Hendrickson 2011

Mr. Condon recorded much of Beirut's debut album, May 2006's "Gulag Orkestar," by himself in his bedroom.

The Heart of Beirut's Brass Melancholia Jim Fusilli 2011

We listened to the samples from 'Gulag Orkestar' and they sound right up our alley.

Continued Adventures Coming Soon C N Heidelberg 2008

Mr. Condon and Beirut earned glowing reviews and respectable sales for their 2006 album, "Gulag Orkestar," which borrowed heavily from Balkan music.

Now Playing Mainstream: 2007

The album maintains the artfully careful arrangements of Beirut's earlier work, but feels trimmed down -- as though the awe and wonder with which Condon viewed "world" music Balkan village-folk on Gulag Orkestar and French chanson for The Flying Cup Club settled into a more comfortable place.

The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2011

The band hasn't completely reinvented itself: anyone drawn to the trumpet and ukulele on Beirut's first album, Gulag Orkestar, will find those familiar sounds on The Rip Tide , but set amidst wurlitzer, pump organ and percussion that can sound almost electronic at times.

News 2011

He produced Gulag Orkestar, celebrating old-world weirdness and nostalgia with bawdy Balkan organ pumps and trumpets.

NPR Topics: News 2011

Gulag Orkestar, will find those familiar sounds on The Rip Tide , but set amidst wurlitzer, pump organ and percussion that can sound almost electronic at times.

News 2011

Gulag Orkestar, Condon has expanded the band to include six members, fleshed out Beirut's sound both on stage and off, and released five EPs and two other albums, including a new one called The War On Drugs On World Cafe

NPR Topics: News 2011

Indeed, it was while the singer-songwriter behind Beirut was selling popcorn at a Balkan Film Festival at an art house movie theatre in his hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, that he first heard the big brass sound that inspired his debut album, Gulag Orkestar 2006.

Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011