Kimmo Pohjonen & Minna Tervamäki – Philharmonie, Cologne; April 12th, 2014
In 2012 I watched the documentary “Soundbreaker” at the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck – that was my first encounter with Kimmo Pohjonen and ever since I had waited for a chance to see him perform. Kimmo Pohjonen always does different things with different people and this time around he is working with dancer Minna Tervamäki. I had no idea what to expect and was rather curious about it. They delivered a short, but very intense performance that had me under its spell for one hour, unable to take my eyes off the stage.
It all began with the sound of an accordion and Pohjonen walking down the stairs right through the audience while playing. He did a few twists and turns on the way, smiled at people, sat down in a few empty seats, looking at the stage. All the while he kept playing. As he reached the stage, a single spotlight was on him. He switched on some effects and continued playing, his accordion sounding less like and accordion by the minute. On the curtain in the background there was a shadow dancing. I could not quite figure out if it was behind the curtain or not – the shadow looked huge and not always completely human.
After a while, Minna Tervamäki stepped out from behind the curtain and continued dancing. It became a play between two characters where the music did the talking and there was chanting and other sounds from Pohjonen, but never any singing. They fought each other, later dance with each other, all perfectly choreographed and in tune with the music that grew stranger and stranger, before it returned to sounds recognizable as accordion. Some times they moved against each other, sometimes they moved together, sometimes far apart and at other times in the same spotlight.
At one point Tervamäki was sitting behind Pohjonen on the floor. When she reappeared, her outfit hat changed from white to black. It all was quite stunning. I tried to figure out what type of a story was told there, but I do not want to chance a guess. It seemed big and it was certainly beautiful. What started in opposition ended in harmony and they danced together in the end.
Beforehand I had had no idea what to expect and decided just to go with the flow. It was strange and interesting and fun. I enjoyed what I saw – the music and the dancing came together perfectly. This sure is an unusual addition to my list of concerts and was more of a performance than just music, but the important part is that it was amazing. I’m happy I went to see this.