Following the success of its Odradek Jazz debut, 'The Haywain', Belgrade-based jazz quartet Hashima returns with 'Starry Night', a unique and powerful reflection of their lives, including a moving insight into the childhood experience of bombing in Serbia in 1999, as well as music inspired by and composed for celebrated arthouse films. The album features guest star Gianluca Petrella, one of the most famous jazz trombone players in Europe.
'Starry Night' boasts 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 ejka, as well as an inspiring live version of the song 'Release', performed with a choir.
In 2018 Hashima was chosen as one of the six finalists in the Avignon Jazz Festival competition for the best new European jazz influenced artists. The group recorded three of this album's tracks while in Avignon, at the legendary La Buissonne studio, where a large number of acclaimed jazz records have been produced. These three songs explore the rollercoaster of emotions felt by several members of the group during the bombing of Belgrade in 1999, as well as drawing on filmic influences from 'L'Eclisse' ('The Eclipse') by Michelangelo Antonioni, and from Alain Resnais' European arthouse masterpiece, 'Muriel'.
Hashima's sound has been defined by jazz critic Thomas Conrad (JazzTimes) as "a unique confluence of classicism, avant-garde racket, lyricism and Balkan folk forms." They are particularly influenced by Wayne Shorter, John Zorn, Igor Stravinsky and Pink Floyd, as well as free improvisation, post-rock and folklore.
The group has been hailed by JazzMusic Archives as: "One of the biggest discoveries of the last years. Balkan jazz has its heroes now" The New York City Jazz Record listed 'The Haywain' as one of the best jazz records in 2017 worldwide.
