Before the War, It Was the War; After the War, It Is Still the War is a set of compositions and sound installation in which Mazen Kerbaj revisits the sonic archive he recorded during Lebanon’s 2006 war.

Twenty years later, he has used this archive — consisting of conversations, TV news, radio songs and bombardments, often accompanied by his trumpet — to shape new works (a double LP, booklet and sound installation) that explore memory, survival and war’s enduring echoes. Resisting war through art allows for catharsis as much as a way to cope with the present.