Piano great Marilyn Crispell and the acclaimed clarinetist and naturalist David Rothenberg have known each other for three decades, ever since the time Rothenberg woke up under a piano at Karl Berger’s Creative Music Studio to the sounds of Crispell’s fluid playing above him. Since then, the two had always talked about recording together—a notion that finally came to fruition in March of 2008, when the pair convened at Nevassa Studio in Woodstock, New York. Crispell does wonders with the quietude of her locale, both on her piano and from an old baby grand soundboard, as she and Rothenberg create a stirring ambience that belies its improvisational nature. One Dark Night I Left My Silent House is one of the calmest, loveliest duo albums to come out on ECM in all of the 41 year existence of Manfred EIcher’s storied jazz label.