B*A*M Beautiful & Massive – The new Annuluk album
Label: Kick the Flame/Broken Silence


At the 24. July 2016 a Global Pop, Electro World Beat-Release is coming in its most modern form. The new album from Annuluk combines analogue instruments from diverse cultures with electronic music and so generates an exciting musical journey to a gripping world of sound in which stylistic fragments melt into one-another, forming many-layered, powerful music. The new album was recorded and mixed by the French team of Roy de Rats in Leipzig. Jürgen Schröder (also editor of Stereoplay and Low Beat magazines) is taking on the mastering. We worked well with them both already on the production of “MalaM”.

The Band
The core of Annuluk is made up of the charismatic singer Michaela Holubova (Miša) together with the multi-instrumentalists Roberto Fratta and Alessandro Cerbucci (Alex Cerb). The three sound pioneers explore worlds of sound together which are formed by working creatively in a variety of genres. The musical virtuosity of Annuluk is never self-serving, it is not to show-off or a colourful pot-luck. The trio chooses much more carefully from its comprehensive musical tool-box to support the compositions most fittingly in their fascinating effect.

In the meantime word has gotten round: Annuluk have earned a name for themselves in the area of World Beat as well as in the electronic music scene. They were already the winners of the Creole Music Competition in Middle Germany and were awarded the open-genre prize, the VIA Indie Award for best newcomer at the Berlin Music Week by the VUT in 2014. Their concert tours have taken them as far as Malaysia (Penang World Music Festival).

With their special affinity to high-quality recording (Annuluk record at 88.2 kHz, double the standard for CDs) and the use of high-end technology give the band the honour of being used for the sound reference settings for equipment tests in industry journals including Stereoplay and Lowbeats. Annuluk’s high-quality production has given them an audiophile audience apart from its pop audience.

The creative trio also regularly invite musical guests into the studio and sometimes onto the stage for the realisation of their music. Also new is the cellist Dave Sills whose “classical” sound will enrich the new album.
The special mix of hand made and synthetic sounds allows it to come under the term Global Pop but it is maybe better described by the statement: When Björk one day retires, Annuluk will be at the forefront, carrying the banner of avant garde pop music.



Beautiful And Massive – it is hard to think of a more fitting title for the new album from Annuluk. While on both of their previous albums, complex rhythms are artistically and harmoniously crafted in a world music setting with splashes of electronic sounds here and there, Annuluk really pumps it up this time round with B*A*M. The backbone of the new album forms breathtaking, screwy as well as really edgy driving drum grooves, accompanied by deep smouldering synthi-bass worthy of even the most hardcore dubstep tracks.

This sound is in contrast to Misa’s hypnotic voocals, which bring quieter, more recognisable lines into the whole mix - and so the necessary “beautiful” isjuxtaposed with the “massive”: like yin and yang.

However this is not without strength or power: as the charismatic singer cranks it up to energetically rap out the frustration from the soul.

Apart from this, characterisitc of B*A*M is that hardly a millisecond goes by without something new happening in musically speaking - organic sounds pop up suddenly from instruments that you would never expect in such a setting.

B*A*M is not only massive but also beautiful. This is seen in melodic, reconciling melodies, such as on “Tiritan”, or the wistfully unique “Camel Step”. For the new listener, first experiencing B*A*M, recommendable is the moody yet appropriately named track“Euphoria”, also a genuine dance-floor filler. This highlights once again: on B*A*M, the name is the agenda.