Finnish accordion adventurist and composer Kimmo Pohjonen has revolutionised accordion music and performance.
Hailed by many as the Jimi Hendrix of the accordion, his extreme and original compositions embrace rock, folk, avant-garde, improvisation, classical, dance and theatre.
From collaborations with Kronos Quartet (UNIKO) to Kings Crimson’s Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelleto (KTU), English farmers (Earth Machine Music) and Olympic wrestlers (Accordion Wrestling), Pohjonen's solo project remains his most sought-after as the main laboratory of his creativity and discovery.
Audiences worldwide have delighted in Pohjonen’s original compositions, musical effects, dynamic and animated stage performances, orchestrated lights and surround sound.
Marking 40 years at the forefront of musical possibilities, Pohjonen brings UK audiences his new solo project Zone this, his 60th, year.
Fulfilling a “a vision I could not have dreamed of in my wildest dreams when I started playing”, Pohjonen presents the acoustic accordion as an increasingly electronic machine. New techniques see harmonic and rhythmic layers of the accordion and human voice played live at the same time.
With his bespoke accordion controlling dramatic surround sound design by Sami Tammela and visuals by VJ Hellstone to convey timely musical, political and religious invitations to dance.
"Kimmo Pohjonen extends the range of the accordion beyond anything I've previously heard" - Songlines
“The kind of freewheeling performer who could easily have slotted alongside John Zorn and Han Bennink. Inimitable.” - The Guardian
”Calling Kimmo Pohjonen an accordionist is a bit like describing the Encyclopedia Brittanica as a book.” - The Herald, Scotland
“The music is sheer physicality…” - New York Times
