Before the distance

Daniel lives in one house, and Eli in the one opposite. Thirty steps separate their doors. At nine they run across them, know each other's families and play until someone calls them home from a window.

The separation arrives as they grow up. Adults begin stopping conversations when they enter; warnings, signs on walls and new ways of speaking about neighbours appear. At twelve, Daniel understands that he is expected to fear his friend.

At seventeen they still live thirty steps apart, but no longer speak. Daniel knows Eli's bedroom light and his routines. What he does not know is how to approach without risking rejection by his friend or his own people.

What the album will tell

The eight songs follow that friendship through three stages: learned division, the consequences of loss and recognising the person on the other side.

The story mainly follows Daniel's experience. Eli has his own home, mother and fear; the story does not assign him thoughts Daniel cannot know. The voice of the songs need not always belong to a single character.

No country, religion or specific conflict is identified. The story focuses on how two friends learn to treat each other as enemies and what changes when they recognise each other again.

The story and the songs

Each chapter explains what happens between Daniel and Eli and how the lyrics express it. The story adds scenes, names and a chronology; the songs focus on the experience of each moment. They are two ways of telling the same story.

The original English lyrics are preserved in full. The images are artistic recreations. The journey begins before the warnings, when Daniel and Eli could still enter each other's homes without a thought.