Chui - Zagreb-Berlin (2022) Hi Res

It seems like a lot of time has passed since the last album of the award-winning Croatian jazz rock quartet Chui. Namely, the acclaimed album "From the Captain's Diary", Chui released in late 2019, enthusiastically embarking on his concert promotions, when the unfortunate coronavirus pandemic came to an end and stopped live music. There have been two years that have literally sucked up time, and it has caught up with us so quickly in 2022 in which we are celebrating exactly 10 years since Chui’s self-titled debut album.

It is a big anniversary for a small instrumental ensemble, so it is not surprising that the guys decided to celebrate this double-digit number of years with the release of their double, sixth studio album "Zagreb - Berlin" which was released today, Friday, May 27, 2022, in digital form and this time for Dancing Bear.

The first part of the album "Zagreb - Berlin" consists of songs created during the pandemic, while the second part of the album consists of songs composed by Chui as a soundtrack for Walter Ruttmann's famous silent documentary, "Berlin Symphony of the City", which premiered at the opening of Zagreb Berlinale Special in collaboration with the Croatian Film Association and the Goethe Institute at the Zagreb Tuškanac Cinema. It is also worth noting that each member of the band composed one movement, adding a personal note to the entire ensemble and stylistically expanding the already wide musical spectrum of Chui.

Chui then performed this original accompanying music for the film at the opening of the 30th day of Croatian film and at the MOP festival in Varaždin, and now they are especially warming up for June 3, when we will perform on the beautiful summer stage of Tuškanac cinema. birthday. Chui dedicated the compositions “Grounded Sun” and “Nine Views” to the Zagreb art installation The Grounded Solar System, which consists of The Grounded Sun by Ivan Kožarić and Nine Views by Davor Preis.

From the album "Zagreb - Berlin" we single out the band's first single in 2022, the song "First Of All…" which gave a brief and explosive insight into a piece of music on the new sixth studio album, which will undoubtedly win this time a loyal audience and critics eager for original music.

Igor Kordej, a living legend of the Croatian comics scene who has established himself worldwide, a former member of Novi Kvadrat and the author of numerous covers of pop and rock albums from the 1980s, is responsible for the great album cover.

Comic book legend Igor Kordej shared his enthusiasm for Chui, their new album, and said more about the idea of ​​this unique cover: city ​​- planet. At the same time, Tony sent me new recordings of still unpolished compositions of epic proportions, in which Chui, in my opinion, surpassed himself. In this way, my illustration, aided by extraordinary music, surpassed my professional design routine and became a work done out of love ”.

On the importance of this collaboration, Toni Starešinić did not spare words of praise and along the way revealed his fascination with the works of Igor Kordej: “As a kid I grew up on comics like most of us, Zagor, Dylan Dog, Mister No and Alan Ford were required literature. However, it was only in the early thirties that I began to discover for myself what a comic book is, today a graphic novel. And here I fell in love with the works of our regionally and world-renowned and most recognized comic book artist Igor Kordej.

In the meantime, I discovered that he is a fan of Chui and that our musical tastes match a lot, so we met and everything somehow naturally led me to ask him to make a cover for our very special album 'Zagreb - Berlin' which here we are celebrating Chui’s first big anniversary, his tenth birthday. At first I was overjoyed when he agreed, and totally overwhelmed and delighted when he sent his work, when you want to buy vinyl just for the cover. For me personally, this collaboration means a lot, and I hope that the audience will like it and enjoy the music and visuals, we try to go one step further in all segments with each album and I think that for now and after ten years we still succeed. . ”

Performance at the Summer Stage of Kina Tuškanac, June 3, is a joint project of the Croatian Film Association, Kina Tuškanac, Goethe Institute and the band Chui. The concert program was co-financed through the Competition "Because you have to play 2" conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian Music Union.