Live Review: Johanna Juhola Reaktori at NCEM (2)

By James Cave

Accordion-playing has a long tradition in Finland. In the 1940s and 50s, accordionists rose to prominence providing improvised accompaniment for wrestling matches, at that time the nation’s favourite sport. A key skill was disguising the participants’ flatulence: players who could improvise a special effect at a potentially embarrassing moment were highly prized.

And Finns also love to tango. The dance was introduced to the country a century ago, and has proved enduringly popular, with one in fifty taking part in the largest annual tango festival.

But hang on - this picture of high-kicking and wild abandon doesn’t fit with my image of Finnish people as fundamentally serious? I’ve been to Helsinki on numerous occasions: in my (possibly limited) experience Finns like nothing more than to follow a dip in a freezing lake with a quiet evening-in reading philosophy. The typical Finnish busker is more likely to serenade you with the Sibelius Violin Concerto than ‘Poker Face’.

What the audience says: Johanna Juhola Reaktori

You so have to check out Johanna Juhola. She's on tour at the moment and it's just great music. And a great 'elf' suit.

a relentlessly enjoyable evening.

Something really special.

Finnish electro-tango in Dr Seuss costumes - brilliant!

So much fresh air from those bellows. Inspiring, congratulations to the whole band
 
We had such a great time last night. There was so much energy and passion emanating from you all... thanks for coming to us .

Live Review: Johanna Juhola Reaktori live at Rich Mix (2)

By Craig Macartney

A bright sun waking up frosty, sleeping conifers in a Finnish boreal forest. Or, Finnish optimism, a term coined by the band when rousing the crowd after their dreamiest number of the night. This was the overwhelming feeling I experienced when leaving Shoreditch’s Rich Mix venue after the first leg of Johanna Juhola Reaktori’s two-week UK tour. This Scandinavian four-piece, offering Finnish- and Argentinian-tango-inspired folk tunes with an electro twist, definitely brightened up East London on a dark, rain-soaked Tuesday night.

Arriving on stage dressed like flamboyant pirates, the band began their set with no introduction other than an old black and white film of Finnish singer Olavi Virta.  Johanna Juhola, the group’s frontwoman and composer swiftly joined in, accompanying the film with virtuosic twinklings on her accordion. 

Live Review: Johanna Juhola Reaktori at Rich Mix

Inspired By Winter

by Andrew Chua

What happens when you mix typical Northern European stoicism with a South American dance styles and bring it into the 21^st Century performance context? The answer is the Johanna Juhola Reaktori who provided some much needed injection of joy and light-hearted humour through an incredible sonic and visual performance to the watching audience at Rich Mix, London last Tuesday night.