Other Projects
-Pohjonen and Juuso Hannukainen perform in collaboration with Ukrainian female vocal group DakhaBrakha. Performances include Helsinki Festival, Gogol Festival in Kiev and Nordwind Festival in Berlin.
-Heikki Laitinen and Kimmo Pohjonen collaborate in the project Murder Ballads.
-Improvisational trio Kelavala: Reijo Kela (dance), Heikki Laitinen (voice), Kimmo Pohjonen (accordion).
Pohjonen has composed music for a Swedish dance performance premiered in October 2006 by choreographer Lisa Torun. Pohjonen also collaborated in Paris in June 2006 with dancers /choreographers Tero Saarinen and Carolyn Carlson. Finnish choreographer Jorma Uotinen directed the Finnish National Opera Ballet performing Pohjonen’s Kielo music at Helsinki‘s National Opera House and again in Netherlands and Australia with local dance companies.
Pohjonen enjoys a high profile UK with performances at The Proms at Royal Albert Hall London, Jazz Festival at the Barbican, Kalmuk and Kluster at Queen Elizabeth Hall and solo in the Purcell Room. Pohjonen has performed at two Meltdown Festivals in London. Pohjonen / Kosminen Kluster at David Bowie’s Meltdown performed one set of Bowie music followed by their own show. At Patti Smith’s Meltdown at Royal Festival Hall 2005, Pohjonen and drummer Sami Kuoppamäki participated in the Songs of Experience concert performing music of Jimi Hendrix. Pohjonen was nominated for BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards in 2002 and again in 2005 for the BBC Radio 3 Planet Award. The Uniko CD was nominated in the Songlines 2012 Music Awards for Best Cross-Cultural Collaboration
Kimmo Pohjonen has received two consecutive five year artist grants from the Finnish state. He was Named “Accordionist of the Year” for 2000 and 2001 in Finnish Jazz magazine Jazz Rytmit and received the Nordic Council Music Award.
Past projects include:
Kalmuk, featuring fifteen piece Tapiola Sinfonietta orchestra plus Samuli Kosminen, a second percussionist, light show and surround sound. Kalmuk premiered in Helsinki 2000 then toured UK in 2002 with a simultaneous DVD release featuring extra video effects and archive film footage.
Animator featured Pohjonen with live computer designs by multi-media artist/designer Marita Liulia and live video mix by Antti Kuivalainen. Successful concerts took place in Helsinki, Vienna, Düsseldorf and in the late 2005 tour of Portugal.
The Manipulator project, 2002, featured Marita Liulia and buto dancer /choreographer Aki Suzuki and was performed in Helsinki, Sweden, Belgium. In Helsinki, the show was six hours of improvised performance on each of three days, total eighteen hours. Folk music groups included the side project Pinnin Pojat with JPP fiddler Arto Järvelä and Sibelius Academy Folk Music Department group Ottopasuuna.
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