There's something utterly symbolic in the fact that I got this CD in the beginning of March when the war in Iraq was about to begin and people's feelings all over the world were boiling hard while all thoughts revolved around that approaching catastrophe which was just one of the many events in the history of mankind.

David Rothenberg and Douglas Quin offer their own vision of the lost Eden on BEFORE THE WAR. It's not fruitless "yearning for innocence", though. It's an attempt to find that "painful point" where the natural flow of things is interrupted and the world is submerged in the depth of chaos. The war is the main drama but possibly the most intricate and painful experience is the prelude to war. Agonizing wait, oppressive numbness, confusion, inscrutability of the reality, tension in soul, and, as a protective reaction - carelessness and longing for one-minute delights, blindly following the life-loving nature of man - it's all there, within ten stylish, laid-back jazz compositions. The artificial beauty adds to the natural one and gives relief to this soft and melodic sound painting. The open topics - our world, people and the nature - everything transforms and becomes intimate by means of the personal and expressively restrained playing.

As was stated by the creators of the album, the leitmotif of BEFORE THE WAR is the nostalgia. This leitmotif doesn't allow confusion to creep in and helps to retain the clear perception of the geographic kaleidoscope found on this CD. Zimbabwe, Algeria, Karelia, Sweden and Lebanon - all are perceivable in that way or other. These were the places where the musicians - David Rothenberg and Douglas Quin - took their inspiration from, either indirectly - by using native acoustic timbres and musical stylistics, or directly - by reciting (narrated by David Rothenberg) the facts about tragic moments in the life of various corners of the world. Wonderful instrumental passages of David Rothenberg (clarinet, keyboards), Bill Douglas (bass, flutes) and Russ Gold (percussion) surround the hypnotic samples of wild life and human voices from Alaska, Madagascar, Costa-Rica, Kenya and Brazil, all collected by Douglas Quin. The fifth composition called "Karelian Night" deserves special attention. Here we can hear the only appearance of Mari Jarvinen. Jouhikko (Finnish bow instrument with three strings) was brought to life in her hands. We can also hear her crystal voice which can only be called disarming, that gave the composition completeness and deep lyricism.

Earth Ear Records that has released this album as always doesn't leave the listener embarrassed. The disc comes with an extensive booklet, from which you can learn the real situation that provoked the appearance of this album, as well as the methods and principles, upon which musicians built their improvisations, the conceptual basis of their creative work.