Hashima - Starry Night

HASHIMA

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01. GLACIERS 02. DANCE NO. 1 (feat. Gianluca Petrella) 03. ECLIPSE 04. RELEASE (live choir version) 05. MURIEL 06. JUNKOPEDIA (soundtrack for the movie The Last Inscription of Leonid Šejka) All works composed by Igor Mišković Arrangements by Hashima TOTAL PLAY TIME

HASHIMA

IGOR MIŠKOVIĆ guitar and vocals SRĐAN MIJALKOVIĆ tenor saxophone ALEKSANDAR HRISTIĆ drums and glockenspiel VANJA TODOROVIĆ double bass FEATURED ARTIST

GIANLUCA PETRELLA trombone

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Welcome to Hashima’s third album.

It is now the sixth year of the Hashima project, and this new album marks a special moment in the group’s artistic expression. The inspiration for this album came from different places, and ended up in collage form.

The album includes a real treat for audiophiles and lovers of pure sound-art: the previously unreleased, first ever studio recording by the group of a free jazz tune created for a surreal short movie about a famous Serbian painter, Leonid Šejka. This is connected poetically with the short movie Junkopedia by Chris Marker because it shares the same idea of using broken and discarded things to create something new.

Dance No. 1 features the great artist, Gianluca Petrella, marking the last studio recording with the first incarnation of the group as we know it. It is a musical dream inspired by the piano miniature of a Serbian composer Vasilije Mokranjac. The circle closes in a very special way. We also share with you a very inspiring live version of the song Release from our first album, performed here with a choir in a new arrangement.

In 2018 Hashima had a great honour to be chosen as one of the six finalists in the Avignon Jazz Festival / Tremplin Jazz d’Avignon competition for the best new European jazz influenced artists. In Avignon, three songs were recorded (tracks 1, 3 and 5 on the album) at the legendary studio La Buissonne, where a large number of famous jazz records have been produced.

Those three songs were built on a feeling that had been saved inside me, and three members of the band, for a long time. It had been a very odd and difficult situation and emotional experience to spend strangely beautiful childhood days during a period of bombing in Belgrade, Serbia in 1999.

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The emotions of a child not understanding the severe consequences, nor the historical causes, of the politics happening at the time, but also the feeling of freedom allowed by this once-in-a-lifetime experience. All the schools were closed and everybody was hanging out outside, playing sports until the siren sounded, then inside our houses, playing cards and games with our parents drinking alcohol and talking about what they’ve heard will be bombed tonight. Some people living in those buildings spent the duration of the bombing in underground shelters.

Strange times that came back in a strange way as a forbidden nostalgia. Inside the album art there are short sentences from the diaries of two girls, friends during that time, who describe the atmosphere of those experiences.

Eclipse is a transposed metaphor of the movie L’Eclisse (The Eclipse) by Michelangelo Antonioni: “streets are empty, wind is howling” reminding us of the last monumental scene of that movie and the way Belgrade looked during the bombing.

Muriel was inspired by Alain Resnais’ European arthouse masterpiece of the same name. The movie evokes the Algerian war with jump-cuts and communication breakdowns that paint the tense emotional atmosphere felt during such times.

At the end of the song a siren can be heard (an actual siren we brought into the studio in France), that was used to inform civilians when bombing started and stopped.

We hope this music inspires people to be creative, and to experiment with the process, as it is one of the best ways to discover our new selves and to advance in joy as we create; to discover what we ourselves can achieve: a one-step-closer-to-heaven world.

Igor Mišković

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BEST MOST DEAR AND ONLY GIRLFRIEND (Jasna and Ivana letters from 99’) “Right now I am shivering and crying, maybe it sounds stupid, but I do shiver because I’ve heard planes, and I cry because your letter is so dear to me.”

“Just the other day I was so happy, you couldn’t guess. But please never think I could ever be really happy without you.

How I wish the war ends...”

“Today is 3. June 1999 and just half an hour ago I received your letter. Guess what: I am incredibly HAPPY!!! And I will tell you the reason I am HAPPY for: Maybe grandma of my girlfriend is bulshitting, but maybe not: she says that she’s heard on the radio, the war will end 80%! I am really HAPPY, and if this is not true I will kill myself. I already made to-do list after this shit ends!”

GLACIERS

RELEASE (choir)

ECLIPSE

Looking for the reason All our dreams are taken Put your hands in your pocket It’s cold out here But cracks are always hiding Glaciers are dividing

Pluvia (rain) Nebula (fog) Caligo (mist)

MURIEL

Qui domicilium habebat in monumentis

Streets are empty Wind is howling All waiting for you My Valentine It’s almost the eclipse Storm is raging from the sky But you’re not coming...

Have you heard a sound Poison in the cloud Ants are eating my hand Have you heard DING DONG

(He who had his dwelling among the tombs)

Deus lacrime (God’s tears) (Mark 5:3)

Desinat misere (it ends miserably)

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WWW.ODRADEK-RECORDS.COM Design:

Recorded at La Buissonne Studios, France (tracks 1, 3, 5) Recorded at Digimedia Studios, Serbia (tracks 2, 4 and 6) Mixing: Goran Crevar Sound and mastering engineer: Nicolas Baillard Mastering: La Buissonne Studios, France Produced by Hashima Artwork by Veljko Valjarević WWW.THEHASHIMA.COM

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