Hello,

Happy New Year!

We’re finishing our first album, finally. It’s a labor of love. Now it’s all about final mixes and the last minute tweaks. Before we uncover what the album is going to be about (in our upcoming posts), let us tell you about clashes and human conflicts that inspired us to write five songs for our first EP “Legacy”.

We’ve spent a good deal of time discussing a “theme” for each song, conflicts and stories we wanted to musically present. It’s an interesting, creative process that many times requires research and deeper understanding of the time and historical circumstances. Our rule is not to take side in any of the conflicts we describe, we just bring them together. It’s an invitation for dialogue, musical one.

An inspiration for the song “Hagia Sophia” came from the monumental architectural place - Hagia Sophia - Mother of Churches, a former patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. A place where Christians and Muslims worshiped and fought over, the “Hagia Sophia” is one of the greatest temples in the world. The song is embellished by elements of both Byzantine chanting and Middle Eastern instruments.

The song “Healing” is based on a traditional Andalusian lullaby, which in some cultures was sung to heal wounded souls. This rare process of reconciliation can be a much-needed path to conflict resolution. The flute melody constantly switches from a major to minor scale, back and forth.

“Legacy” juxtaposes samples of historic public speeches given by four former American presidents; Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, JFK and Ronald Reagan, two Democrats and two Republicans. We thought the words of US Presidents would have a bigger impact given the influence of these individuals on the world’s affairs. There is a larger question for all of us: “What is OUR Legacy?”, what kind of world we all leave behind us to our kids and generations after us. Below is our music video “Legacy”.

The main theme in “Metamorphosis” comes from Psalm 5 written by Ali Ufki, originally Wojciech Bobowski, a Polish protestant 17th century composer who later converted to Islam and who in his time represented a “musical bridge” between East and West. His musical works are considered among the most important in 17th-century Ottoman music. The voices of a Persian singer and a Turkish imam are representing a peaceful musical resolution to longstanding Shia-Sunni divisions in Islam.

The song “Hiroshima” is dedicated to the legacy of the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack that led to death of as many as 140,000 people. We have used samples of President Truman’s voice from his public speech given after the atomic bomb release and an archived recording of the traditional Japanese Imperial Palace Music Department recorded sometime during the Second World War.

Listen to these songs on our web site http://www.clashofcivilizationsmusic.com.

‘Till next time, all the best from Clash of Civilizations.

Hello everybody,

Welcome to Clash of Civilizations Blog on Star Polish Life.

First of all, thanks to the folks at Star Polish Life for giving us this spot on their great new web site to write about different issues that interest us as artists and creators. Comments, ideas or suggestions are all welcomed since we’d love to have an open dialogue.

We’d like to write about global, cultural and political issues facing our lives every day through music, news, media, politics, religion, mass culture, etc. Yes, it sounds like a pretty wide spectrum of topics but actually that’s much in line what our musical concept Clash of Civilizations is all about.

So what is Clash of Civilizations?

The story of a musical project Clash of Civilizations began two years ago here in Boston after numerous political discussions between two of us, friends, composers and music producers, Milan Kovacev and Nikola Radan. We’ve came up with an idea about creating a musical project inspired by the political theory called “clash of civilizations” initiated by the works of the Harvard’s political science professor Samuel Hungtington. For further reference about this political theory check out Hungtington’s political study titled “Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the New World Order”.

In our own version of this “clash”, we wanted to create a musical portrait of modern times by intertwining music from around the globe, historical and political samples (most of them presidential), ancient melodies (some dating back hundreds of years), and original native instruments. We wanted these separate pieces to meld together and create something entirely new and harmonious, something that as a whole is more powerful and moving than its separate parts. And that also meant that we never take side in any human “clash” we explore musically.

We refute an old myth that the differences between races, cultures, and civilizations can only be bridged by military, economic, or cultural domination. Our musical approach is to illustrate the common musical bonds found within all cultures.

Some of our friends gave the name to our version of electronic and world music by simply calling it “political electronica”. Sounds right. And speaking of friends, our project involves creative musicians and performers from the U.S., Japan, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Cyprus, France, Albania and Serbia, based on Boston and New York City.

In late January 2008 we’ve launched our first digital single “Change in America”, as our campaign contribution to Barack Obama’s presidential bid. Inspired by Obama’s speech given after the NH primary, we wrote the song using samples of his remarkable speech and the sound of responding supporters. We offered it as a free download for sharing and creating videos. We are proud to be a part of the historical movement that has eventually elected the first African-American US President.

In October 2008 we released our debut five-song EP “Legacy” (on our indie label deliberately called Dialogue) followed by our first music video for the song “Legacy”. “Legacy“ uses samples of historical speeches of the four former US Presidents: JFK, Carter, Ford and Reagan, two Democrats and two Republicans.

Our album is on its way slated for release in early January.

In our next blog we’ll tell you more about our songs, clashes and stories that inspired us to write our music. In the meantime you can visit our web site http://www.clashofcivilizationsmusic.com or watch our music video “Legacy”.

Stay tuned.