KIMMO - solo

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Að hlusta á Kimmo Pohjonen er stórbrotin upplifun sem umbyltir öllum hugmyndum um hvernig harmónikka hljómar og hvernig tónlist skuli leikin á hana.
Kimmo Pohjonen er framúrstefnulegur finnskur tónlistarmaður og harmónikkulistamaður. Hann kemur fram á einum tónleikum í NASA og bruggar þar magnaðan seið með sömplum, ljósum og slagsmálum við hljóðfærið sem víkka út sjóndeildarhring allra viðstaddra.
Hjá Kimmo er húmorinn aldrei langt undan og hann hefur samið, tekið upp tónlist og leikið með ólíkum tónlistarmönnum víða um heim, strengjasveitum, butoh-dönsurum og áströlskum landbúnaðartækjum svo eitthvað sé nefnt og samið tónlist fyrir kvikmyndir, dansverk og leiksýningar.
Fyrir nokkrum vikum lék hann með Kronos kvartettinum í Carnegie Hall og hlaut rífandi móttökur áhorfenda og gagnrýnenda. 

„Ótrúleg, hrífandi og súrrealísk tónlistar- og leikhúsupplifun; fullkomlega sérviskuleg, frumleg og ósvífin listræn snilld í mörgum víddum. Enginn flutningur hefur hrifið mig jafn mikið á undanförnum árum.“ (http://www.jazzhouse.org/)

"Finland's answer to Bjork... Pohjonen is nothing less than jaw dropping. Utterly brilliant." (New Internationalist)

Heimasíða Kimmo Pohjonen

Myndbönd með Kimmo á tónleikum á YouTube

Ummæli

"In the hands of Finland's Kimmo Pohjonen, the accordion abandons its folk roots to become a gutbusting furnace of shamanic sound, animated by primal energies and orchestral dynamics...a performer whose blend of virtuosity and resolute experimentation is routinely likened to that of Jimi Hendrix and Laurie Anderson."(Wire)

"..a boundlessly ambitious improvisor - the kind of freewheeling performer who could easily have slotted alongside John Zorn and Han Bennink…" (The Guardian)

“Pulverising avalanche of dark, primeval, sonic theatre” (Sydney Morning Herald)

“..truly an innovator on his instrument and in his conception of improvised music. Layering chords upon chords and building to crescendos of melodic and harmonic extravagance by means of a seamless production of gradually mounting orchestral body from his instrument, pedaled special-effects such as loops, sampling, and playback, and guttural vocalizations, moans, and insect-like buzzes via a tiny mic resting upon his left cheek, Pohjonen rocked back and forth demonically on his stool, his face often contorted in emotional pain. (...)Kimmo Pohjonen's performance proved to be a riveting musical and surreal theatrical experience, a multi-dimensional display of totally original, astonishingly eccentric, and unabashedly uncompromising artistic genius. I can't think of any performance of recent years that has so moved me.” (www.jazzhouse.org)

“The music is sheer physicality”… ”Uniko” is like an ocean tide coming in. Big waves of sound build in complexity, animation and sometimes sheer frenzy, then abruptly retreat into small lyrical moments, amplified pizzicatos or buzzings by some huge and imaginary insect. Mr. Pohjonen, a virtuoso on an accordion wired for sound, guided things along and became so excited at the end that one worried about his well-being.” (Bernard Holland)

"Finland may be a land without Elvis…but it is a land with Kimmo Pohjonen." "….Pohjonen taps the accordion's buttons producing a cavern of icicles and indulges in an extended passage of glossolalia which avoids Bobby McFerrin territory by sounding like a group of monks Gregorian chanting, smacking their lips and undergoing EST treatment." (Wire)

"…he'll be screaming absurdities into his mike, beating himself around the head and exor/exercising the banshees that live within the 65 kg instrument responsible for sounds no human could have hoped to hear while alive." (Mojo)

"Kimmo Pohjonen extends the range of the accordion beyond anything I've previously heard. He pushes and pulls,...heaving from it sounds that defy any expectation of what it can achieve....a musician of immense talent, invention and wit...". (Songlines)

"...a stirring show. Pohjonen jerking about like a tortured marionette receiving electric shocks from the bellows." "…one of the world's most idiosyncratic musicians, a lunatic fringe comibination of Yngwe Malmsteen, Phil Minton, Brian Eno, Astor Piazzolla and The Happy Wanderers." (Wire)

"Pohjonen wrestles with the accordion as if it were an alligator, generating waves of rolling, swelling, wheezing, clattering live-sampled sound, building to a churning climax in which the music becomes almost detached from the man and his instrument." - (Folk Roots)