An exceptional artist, known for his avant garde and experimental work and for having revolutionized the sound of the accordion, Kimmo Pohjonen returns to Romania after his 2014 concert at Garana Jazz Festival. "He has been stretching boundaries and defying expectations for more than a decade, with mind-blowing concepts and visual performances", according to "All About Jazz".
In the project titled The Earth Machine Music, for instance, the artist incorporates sounds from a farm into his performances. He has released over 10 albums, has composed music for films, toured worldwide and collaborated with a variety of artists, including DakhaBrakha (a TIFF 2013 guest) and Kronos Quartet. In 2012, the artist was awarded Aesthetic Act of 2012 Prize for a project involving Romanian street musicians in Helsinki. The same year, he was awarded the Order of the Lion of Finland / Pro Finlandia Prize, one of the most prestigious distinctions in Finland.
Unique in his style, Kimmo Pohjonen is at the centre of a documentary screened at TIFF a day prior to the concert, Soundbreaker (r. Kimmo Koskela). Selected in many festivals, the film goes through the artist’s 35- year long career and contains interviews, photos, music and unpublished archival material. At TIFF, Kimmo Pohjonen (accordion, voice, sound) will be performing alongside Heikki Iso-Ahola (sound design) and Otso Vartiainen (lighting design). More info on the artist: www.facebook.com/kimmopohjonen | http://www.kimmopohjonen.com/