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Earth Machine Music: Kimmo Pohjonen (accordion and electronics), Farm Machinery (various operatives), Westcott Barton Farm, Middle Marwood near Barnstaple. Devon, 15.5.2008 (BK)

Kimmo Pohjonen - Picture © Kalle Björklid

 

Yes, that's right. Farm machine noises, including the running engine from  a Kawasaki  Mule 4x4, a pile driver attachment on a tractor, an angle grinder cutting through an oil drum, a hand cranked grain sifter and a chainsaw  were all 'played' at this concert. Along with other sampled farm sounds, they were major components in virtuoso accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen's latest project, Earth Machine Music. No-one present  had ever heard anything like it.

Kimmo Pohjonen isn't  your average accordionist. Come to that, he's  not your average anything.  Like many other great Finnish musicians,  he studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki during the 80's (classical accordion first and then folk music) and  for the past ten years or so, he  has been pushing the boundaries of accordion playing further and further away from his folksy origins in Finland's Western Lake District.  In partnership with the likes of the Kronos Quartet and members of King Crimson, he has played classical, folk, rock, jazz  and tango music (tango is more popular in Finland than many parts of South America) and he now tours the world pursuing his passion, literally squeezing  new sounds from every part of his instrument - which is  kitted out with some serious electronic doodads these days. Pohjonen played at the Proms in 2003 and won the Culture Crossing category in BBC Radio 3's  World Music Awards in 2006.

Kimmo at Westcott Barton
 

Earth Machine Music is a project sponsored jointly by the unlikely combination of The Finnish Institute, the UK Arts Council and the UK agricultural magazine Farmer's Weekly. Last week, it  was staged at four farms in Suffolk, Sussex, North Devon and Oxfordshire and the material for each performance was gathered by sampling the sounds of  machinery and animals in each of the four venues. They were then  worked  into  the extraordinary soundscapes that Pohjonen can conjure from his accordion. Every performance was different, varying with the sampled sounds available.  The result came out as musique concrète with knobs on, as  inventive a cross-genre creation as anything capable of being performed by a single human being with a few machines.  It was also fantastic fun.

Due to North Devon's Atlantic driven climate - people say that if they can't see Cardiff from Ilfracombe it must be raining and if they can see Cardiff, then the rain will start soon -  the concert took place indoors. Crammed into a fairly small barn and surrounded by banks of loudspeakers and microphones, 120 Kimmo enthusiasts, squoze themselves together to the accompaniment of miscellaneous humming and chattering mechanicals being played through the surround sound speakers.

Kimmo and the Angle Grinder
 

Enter Kimmo Pohjonen complete with mohican haircut and small microphoned headset. He climbs the stairs to the raised platform from which he will perform, vocalising quietly as the sampled sounds change to recordings of ducks : and as more mechanical noises take over, he begins to play his accordion. For the next hour and quarter he loses himself in demonstrating what an accordion can actually do;  he makes its keyboard buttons squeak, click and chirrup, produces a huge range of unlikely noises from the air bleed on the bellows and gradually begins an astonishing display of improvisations matching the pre-sampled farm sounds seamlessly.  As the performance progresses, the Kawasaki Mule pushes its bonnet through the barn doors and a microphone picks up the engine note. It's loud but not deafening and serves as a basis for more music, some of which is seriously extraordinary, sounding more like Bartók than Bartók  and culminating in a huge cathedral sized organ sound  - like the opening of the 5th door in Duke Bluebeard but accompanied by  machinery. Horses hooves follow,  integrated into another wall of sound and then there is a quieter interlude.  A lady from the farm solemnly turns the crank handle of the grain sifter while the cogs become a background for a syncopated raggy waltz (more or less in 3 time.) It's a very pretty tune somehow made more poignant by the gently clicking cogs.

And so it goes on for a totally enthralled audience. We have a spontaneous fireworks display as the angle grinder attacks the oil drum and sparks fly everywhere  - completely safely of course because this is England.  The  audience is mesmerised by more machines, more truly fascinating music and after a burst of screaming from the chainsaw, Kimmo Pohjonen leaves the building and it's suddenly over. The audience goes wild with appreciation and after five minutes of calming down, Kimmo Pohjonen returns to have a chat with us. He explains how the electronics work, answers questions about his accordion and seems genuinely pleased that people have enjoyed his work.

There's a word in Finnish  - an incredibly economical language despite its formidable grammar - that neatly sums up this extraordinary  man and his music. It's ihana. Roughly speaking it means great, fantastic, wonderful, Wow! or any other superlatives you fancy adding.  Thanks so much  then (Kittoksia paljon) Kimmo Pohjonen : this was as ihana as anything gets.

Bill Kenny

Pictures from Westcott Barton © Dave Green for Beaford Arts, local organisers for this concert.

Kimmo Pohjonen's web site is Here

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