Uniko is a special collaboration between Kronos Quartet and Kimmo Pohjonen Kluster, comprised of Finish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and sampling artist Samuli Kosminen.

Kimmo Pohjonen has built a reputation worldwide as a daring and inventive artist pushing the limits of accordion music and performance. He has toured as a solo artist and with numerous ensembles and projects including Kluster, Kalmuk (with Tapiola Sinfonietta), Manipulator, and Animator (both with multimedia artist Marita Liulia). Samuli Kosminen, aside from his Kluster work, also enjoys a simultaneous career with Icelandic band Mum. He is known as an innovator in the art of sampling and percussion. Recently Pohjonen and Kosminen teamed up with Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto (from King Crimson) for the project KTU (pronounced K2).

Uniko, which consists of nine movements, was written for Kronos by Pohjonen and Kosminen. The evening-length work features accordion, voice, string quartet, live loops, samples, effects, with Kosminen's sample work consisting entirely of accordion, voice and string sounds manipulated and reprocessed into new audio elements. Uniko received its world premiere in Helsinki on Sept 4 and 5, 2004, at the Helsinki Festival, and was performed later that month at the MDM Youth Place in Moscow. See the program here.

Said David Harrington, "If there's one thing common in all the different people that Kronos has worked with in the last 31 years, it's that they have all somehow redefined their instrument or genre. That certainly goes for Kimmo. I've listened to a lot of accordion music in different genres around the world from folk to high art - whatever that might be - and nobody sounds anything like him. He's one of those great players, who can infuse every note with their soul and personality.

"Kluster's music has that time-traveling aspect that I love. You enter a time web, where you can't tell anymore, if you are in the past, the present or the future. It takes you outside the ordinary conception of time." [excerpt from Finnish Music Quarterly]

For more info on Kimmo Pohjonen go to www.kimmopohjonen.com.