COMPOSERS: Kimmo Pohjonen
LABELS: Westpark
PERFORMER: Kimmo Pohjonen
CATALOGUE NO: 87092 (distr. MacTwo)
Finnish accordionist KIMMO POHJONEN, a graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, has produced Kalmuk, a collaboration with musicians of the Tapiola Sinfonietta. It’s a remarkable work that defies convenient pigeonholing. While his unorthodox use of strings may echo Stravinsky and Bartók, it’s still all his own.
This is a significant piece of contemporary music, full of strong rhythmic flourishes, yet unfolding with careful and affecting melodic logic, and Pohjonen finds unconventional solutions to the conventional problems of extended composition.