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.

The Johanna Juhola Reaktori consist of Johanna Juhola on accordions, Tuomas Norvio on electronic percussion, Milla Viljamaa on the harmonium and piano and Sara Puljula on double bass. When a band uses traditional folk instruments such as the accordion and harmonium, it is very easy for them to fall into certain categorisation and labels due to the common association of those instruments. However, what Johanna brought to the table was a very refreshing and quirky twist to a brand of music that does not automatically belong to any of the traditional genres. Although Johanna is the main composer in all the songs, the other band members bring their own characteristics and perspective to the arrangements.

For me, one of the most interesting concepts in the music was the tasteful addition of electronic sounds to the music triggered through the drum machine. The choice of percussive sounds, loud and heavy in certain songs while minimal in others gave the other three musicians an additional soundscape in which to weave their musical fabric; and weave the music they did with a superb level of highly skilled musicianship. At times, Johanna’s dexterous fingers were a blur, flying up and down the accordion with ease and accuracy.

Although the band introduced themselves as a mix of electronica and tango, the set strayed beyond the boundaries of traditional tango with the use of irregular rhythmic meters. The 7/8 meter when placed in the context of a tango dance is almost akin to a dancer falling over its own feet. With the quirkiness and eclecticism of the band, perhaps this was an intended effect.

The band also provided pieces of visual references through its triggering of video clips and this was where I found one of my favourite songs of the night. Bipolar Tango is a collaboration between Johanna Juhola and Swedish rapper, Promoe. While the music was played live, the rap was triggered both through sound and video. The combination of a folk/tango band with a rapper and augmented with electronic beats goes to show that the sky is the limit when it comes to creative inspiration for the band. Bipolar Tango summed the band up quite aptly because it is the result of North European stoicism and South American dance styles, inspired by winter.

Live at Rich Mix (9/4/13). Photo by Katerina Pavlakis.