KUU! creates a buzz in the Berlin jazz scene with dynamic, precisely executed songs containing sharp commentary on the times we live in. Singer Jelena Kuljić is not only a schooled jazz vocalist, but also a professional actor working with some of Europe’s most prominent ensembles including Berliner Volksbühne and Münchner Kammerspiele.

Her imaginative lyrics and unavoidable performances form a unity with the electric guitars of Kalle Kalima and Frank Möbus (Der Rote Bereich) and the drums of Christian Lillinger (Hyperactive Kid). This music is its own theatre, ‘hectic modern noir’ according to ACT, the label behind the group’s most recent album Lampedusa Lullaby.

‘Together the four aim to shake upside down the vibrant Berlin scene with a raw, thorny mixture of punk attitude, electro-dance elements, eccentric fusion, and free jazz outbursts. Or as the quartet articulates it, anything oscillating between the two Ninas: the sensual Nina Simone, and the punk-operatic Nina Hagen’ (All About Jazz).

Jelena Kuljić vocals, Kalle Kalima, Frank Möbus guitar, Christian Lillinger drums