ISKRA SMOKA is a European media-art, music and book project. It connects stories, languages, music and visual design and is developed through creative collaboration between people and artificial intelligence.
The projects grow from travel experiences, historical traces, regional traditions, personal encounters and literary ideas. These develop into songs, images, characters and continuing stories. Some songs tell stories of their own. Others accompany characters and places from the book projects or explore subjects that play a special role there.
Diversity, remembrance and equality
ISKRA SMOKA regards Europe's linguistic and cultural diversity as a richness. Every language carries its own experiences, memories and forms of expression. The project therefore aims not merely to translate different languages, but to recognise and respect their individual character.
All people and all European nationalities are of equal worth. Origin, language, religion, or the size and political importance of a country do not determine whose stories deserve attention. ISKRA SMOKA also seeks to draw attention to regions, minorities and personal experiences that are easily overlooked in simplified narratives of Europe.
This commitment includes remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution. That memory must neither be relativised nor reduced to one historical background among many. It obliges us to oppose antisemitism, racism, exclusion and the devaluation of human beings.
The books, songs and images do not seek to conceal historical differences or present-day conflicts. Equality does not mean equating experiences, responsibility or history. It means meeting every person with the same dignity and taking different perspectives seriously.
ISKRA SMOKA seeks to replace prejudice with curiosity. Languages, music and stories cannot remove borders – but they can help us listen to one another more closely.
Music in many languages
Many songs appear in the language of the country or the people they tell about. German, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Georgian, Russian, Portuguese and many other linguistic worlds therefore belong to the project.
On this website, original lyrics are presented alongside accessible translations. These language versions are intended to make listening and understanding easier. They are not always literal; wherever possible they preserve the ideas, images and moods of each song.
Music and stories
A growing part of the music belongs to larger contexts. These include collections connected with the book projects “Amir” and “Maja”, as well as different areas of the Erasmus+ project: songs about life with a host family, journeys through Spain and language learning.
There are also independent collections such as European Christmas and birthday songs. Future book pages will make these connections visible with project information, reading samples and matching music collections. QR codes in the books can link directly to song pages with original lyrics, translations and streaming links.
Learning through music
Some songs deliberately connect music and language learning. They take up vocabulary, expressions or grammatical structures without sounding like conventional exercises. Language appears in situations: sharing a meal, travelling, staying with a host family, dancing or talking with young people from different countries.
These songs are not intended to replace language courses. They invite listeners to listen closely, recognise structures and experience language as part of a story.
Created in collaboration with AI
ISKRA SMOKA content is developed through an ongoing dialogue between people and artificial intelligence. Starting points include original ideas, journeys, photographs, research, characters, stories and educational experience. AI contributes to developing and revising texts, translations, musical concepts, images and design variants.
This often produces numerous drafts. They are checked, discussed, changed, rejected or combined. Human selection and editorial decisions determine which versions are developed further and eventually published.
The music is also produced with the aid of generative systems. Style, instrumentation, voices, linguistic design and narrative effect are shaped through instructions, selection and repeated revision. Covers and illustrations are created from described scenes, design rules and, in some cases, original image references.
ISKRA SMOKA sees AI not as a substitute for human creativity, but as a tool and creative counterpart that opens surprising possibilities while also making mistakes, having limits and requiring human decisions.
The person behind ISKRA SMOKA
ISKRA SMOKA is the pseudonym of Andreas Kalbitz registered with GEMA.
He studied mathematics, geography and computer science in Greifswald with an educational focus and an emphasis on educational psychology. Since 1991 he has gained extensive teaching experience in Hamburg – not only in the subjects he studied, but also in German, music and other fields.
This combination of education, language, technology and an interest in different countries shapes ISKRA SMOKA. Many ideas arise while travelling: from real places, personal encounters, photographs, historical traces and observations that later flow into songs, images and stories.
Music has accompanied him since his youth. Even as a teenager, writing and making music were among his personal forms of expression. He plays some drums, guitar and piano.
His musical taste is best described as eclectic. His interests range from Beethoven through Neil Young and Genesis to 2Pac. Sometimes it is the stories and personalities behind the music that catch his attention – but most often it is the music itself.
ISKRA SMOKA online
News, releases and glimpses behind the project are also available on Facebook.
An open European project
ISKRA SMOKA remains open to new countries, languages, media and forms of expression. Some paths begin with a song, others with a character, a historical place, a photograph or a conversation.
At its heart is the question of what can emerge when human imagination and artificial intelligence continue developing an idea together.