The Talking Peace Festival has announced the launch of Peace Tracks, a global collaborative music project that brings together internationally celebrated recording artists with musicians from conflict zones.

High-profile recording artists from different musical backgrounds, from rock and pop to classical, have contributed exclusive audio elements to a common digital ‘music box’.

These include Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler, Philip Glass, Angélique Kidjo, Anoushka Shankar and Duran Duran’s Roger Taylor.

Musicians from conflict-affected regions around the world will collaborate and build upon these contributions, drawing on their own diverse styles and musical heritage to create songs using the online platform Ohm Studio.

The best recorded songs will be released online on September 8th, when the public will also have the chance to download them from Ohm Studio to remix them.



The project aims to bring together musicians across cultural and conflict divides, who might never otherwise have a chance to create music together, and give them a platform to express themselves, and their views on issues of conflict and peace.

Geezer Butler, Black Sabbath’s bassist, lyricist and co-founder, said: “From the earliest Sabbath stuff, I’ve written lyrics about the grim reality of war. Peace Tracks can hopefully bring more people around the world to think about peace.”

We believe that collaboration is key to music making, but it’s also integral to peacebuilding. Through this project, we hope to demonstrate the opportunities that music and technology open up for building new relationships across borders and cultures, and sparking conversations about important global issues.

As part of this initiative, a group of 30 musicians from conflict zones, in partnership with In Place Of War, will collaborate in a music studio in Sheffield, UK on August 25th–26th to build on the original audio elements and create unique pieces. The songs will be produced by Reverend and the Makers frontman Jon McClure.
These musicians will perform the songs live at Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire on August 27th–28th and at Festival No 6 in Wales on September 3th–6th.

For more details visit Talkingpeacefestival.org.