A Study of Losses

ベイルートによる2年振りの新作はサーカスと小説の世界観を音にした遊び心あふれる作品。Beirutによる2年振り通算7枚目のスタジオ作品はスウェーデンの現代サーカス・カンパニー"Kompani Giraff"のディレクターであるヴィクトリア・ダルボリからユーディット・シャランスキーの小説を原作とした新作公演の音楽を依頼されて製作された作品。シャランスキーの小説とそれを基にしたサーカス公演の主題は「喪失」と「この世界のあらゆるものの無常」で、絶滅した動物種、失われた建築物や文学の遺産、さらに老いを通じた抽象的な喪失の概念など様々な形で「失われるもの」が表現されています。アコースティクな楽器を使用した作品からモジュラーシンセを使った新たな試み。

In 2023, Zach Condon released the solo Beirut album Hadsel, a set of songs recorded during periods of self-imposed (for health issues), then forced (due to COVID-19) isolation and featuring a limited palette centered on a church organ. He returns less than two years later to a more wide-ranging chamber folk sound for A Study of Losses. That not to say its a "typical" Beirut album: Inspired by the tale of a man obsessed with archiving humankinds lost thoughts and creations, A Study of Losses consists of 11 songs and seven instrumentals commissioned by Kompani Giraff, a Swedish circus, for their stage show of the same name (loosely based on the 2018 novel Verzeichnis einiger Verluste by Judith Schalansky). Having said that, both the songs and the instrumentals here function much more like a Beirut album than, say, a score. Appropriately melancholy in nature, the album begins with the mournful "Disappearances and Losses," an otherworldly instrumental whose slowly unfolding melody of pulsing tones blends unison electronic and acoustic instruments. The first song, "Forest Encyclopedia," is livelier, with earthy percussion and layers of ukulele-type strumming and vocal harmonies alongside lyrics about leaving and hiding. The plucked and malleted, lullaby-like "Villa Sacchetti" offers Condon at his most bittersweet, and the breezier "Guerickes Unicorn" incorporates drum kit and modular synths for something more resplendent. The records persistently fantastical, yearning qualities are also reflected in lyrics like the repeated "Where did you go?/Where have you been?" from "Tuanaki Atoll," a song about an island in the South Pacific that disappeared circa 1842. Elsewhere, Baroque influences are most evident on the instrumental "Mare Crisium." As a whole, only one of the 18 tracks here crosses the four-minute mark, so A Study of Losses hour-long playing time seems to go by quickly, and its unceasing sweetness and longing linger after Condon is "Left to be/A sea of tranquility" ("Mare Tranquillitatis") to close a lovely theater project. ~ Marcy Donelson

スウェーデンのサーカス団から依頼を受けて制作した音楽で構成される2年ぶりの新作。レトロチックでエスニックなテイストはそのままに、モジュラー・シンセを用いて自由度の高い音作りを実践しているあたりが特徴で、彼の音楽に宿る夢想的な領域がより大きく広げられた印象すら抱かされる。物悲しいメロディーや情緒豊かな歌声の美しさも十二分に享受できる。
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