Kimmo Pohjonen

Is the accordion a percussion instrument? Perhaps not of itself, but in the gifted hands of Kimmo Pohjonen it becomes just that. Among other things, because don't pin the Finn down on anything. For some thirty years he has been showing what his instrument can do, how immensely broad the palette of sounds and colors is, into how many diverse genres the accordion fits.

Pohjonen's music is energetic and very raw, a quality he adds to with the almost beastly guttural sounds with which he often accompanies his virtuoso playing. As soon as Pohjonen enters the stage with his imposing appearance and attitude, you know something is about to happen. Forget how you knew the accordion, because that's not how the instrument sounds with him for a moment. No, you enter a unique, musical universe in which amazing, new worlds arise time and again.