LIGHT IN BABYLON INTERVIEW

LIGHT IN BABYLON

‘’Light in Babylon’’ this is the name of a band,with a musical expression that emits a special light on the world music scene!

Their project is the fusion of different ethnicities and cultures ,the singer is Israel from Iranian orgin, the santur player is Turkish and the guitarist is French and they cooperate with musicians from different originas well (Turkish,English and more).

What became the core trio of band met in 2010 in Instanbul. Michal Elia Kamal would writes lyrics and arrangement and composition would be made by the trio including Metehan Cifci (santour)and Julien Demarque(guitar).

The trio now perfoms on stage with the support of two other musicians,the percussionist Stuart Dickson and the bassist Jack Butler.

Today ‘’Light in Babylon’’ continues its journey with the support of thousands of fans. They have toured in Turkey,Cyprus,Germany,Switzerland,France,Hungary,India Filand and Greece.

An appointment with ‘’Light in Babulon’’

ATHENS CALLING: Hi! Really feel wonderful because we will have the opportunity to talk with you! How you spend this time?

LIGHT IN BABYLON: Hello, well, this time we were quite busy, many new things to do, many development, we had been working on our new album that will be release in the 10th of November, new songs who are expected to be born into the world and the hearts.

ATHENS CALLING: We would like to tell us include the new record work, who expect in November , for lyrics and of course for her musical style.

LIGHT IN BABYLON: when people are asking us where are you from and where is this music from , we always answering that we are the world people, and our music is world music, in the new album which its name is “YENI DUNYA” which means in Turkish “New World” you will be able to feel this new feeling the freshness, like a new voice that is rising from the middle east and wants to rise his voice. In the lyrics you can find indeed pain and struggle but also hope and optimism .

ATHENS CALLING: Year 2016 and many problems around the world ,wars, refugees, economic crisis. Really what is your opinion about everything that happens ?

LIGHT IN BABYLON: there are many ways to look in to our reality, its depends in which direction are you looking from and it depends which kind of question are you asking. Our message trough our music is that first of all we are all humans it’s not something that all of us remember and music is one of the tools who can help us to reconnect to our emotions. in our days its very easy to be full of hate in front of the television or the computer or in front of a photo of a politician, but at the moment there is a person in front of you, a human, just like you, and you are able to look into his or her eyes, you will discover there the reflection of yourself.

With our music, we are not telling people what to do, or how to think, we are just sharing, we are talking not only to the mind level, but very much to the emotional level. and we feel the feedback in every concert when people are coming to us after the concert, full of emotion, and hope and inspiration.

ATHENS CALLING: Is there a certain light in the tunnel of global crisis and if there is what is this light?

LIGHT IN BABYLON: there is always a struggle between light and darkness, inside us and outside and what is is light actually, music is light, art is light, compassion is light, communication is light. We are living inside a system, system who force us to look in one direction, the moment you put light in this system, in our case is music,you give your listeners a choice,a choice to look also in to other directions.

ATHENS CALLING: Returning to the music we would like to tell us about your musical projects .

LIGHT IN BABYLON: Light in Babylon was founded when one Iranian-Israeli (Michal Elia Kamal), one French (Julien Demarque) and one Turkish (Metehan Ciftci) met in Istanbul in 2010.We come from different countries and cloture’s but we do have something in common, music, the passion to pass on a message open heart and open mind.We started back at the time with performances in Istiklal street in Istanbul, and we grow step by step, building our way and finding recognition and many stages, today we are already the five of us, with two more musicians who are joining us in our concerts, Jack Butler(England) and Stuart Dickson(from Scotland), all of us based in Istanbul. We did all that way independently and we produced our self our albums with the help of our fans from all over the world who support us, enjoy our music and buy our albums online from everywhere.

ATHENS CALLING: Thank you for what you told us and we wish good trip in the musical world !

LIGHT IN BABYLON: Thank you too and we are looking forward to come also to Athens ! We come a lot to Greece, but we haven’t had the chance to play in Athens yet , we will try to make it happen.